The Battle of Gor
by cgaussie
Summary: The Second Epic Installment of our Tales by myself and Invader Poe. Gor the robot has kept quiet far too long, and he's about to raise his head to be noticed again.
1. Chapter 2

The Battle of Gor  
Epic Two  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Zib jumped up onto the couch with some difficulty, glaring at Gir, who was inches away from the television,  
  
"Gir, get out of the way so I can watch!"  
  
"Happy pop tart super model cheese wedges!" Gir replied chripily, but still didn't move.  
  
"I'm the offspring of your Master, that gives me authority over you, you know!" Well, Zib wasn't sure if it actually did or not, but it couldn't hurt to try. The little robot's antennae flopped,  
  
"Awwww.... okie Mini-Master Baby." Gir got to his feet and backed up onto the couch, and sat besides Zib.  
  
"I am not a baby!" He glared, scowling at Gir in a rather Zim-like fashion, "I'm the equivillent to being nearly 7 years old." He huffed indignantly and folded his arms, but scooted over for Gir. "So, um, what're you watching?"  
  
"I dunno." Gir replied, on the screen it shown a tree. Just a tree in a park with birds in it. Zib stared at it for a while, getting bored after less than a minute.  
  
"I wonder when that sitter will be getting here…" He mumbled to himself, leaning back against the cushions.  
  
"Who dat?" the little robot looked over at Zib, since he hadn't been paying attention about sitter or anything.  
  
"Mom called someone over to watch us," he grumbled, looking disgruntled about the whole manner, "He knows full well I'm old enough to look out after myself!"  
  
"Awww.." Gir just stared at Zib for a while, then leapt and glomped around his head. "I WUV YOU MINI MASTER!" he squealed happily.  
  
"NYAG! GET OFF ME!" Zib fell over, easily toppled by the robot who was only a bit smaller than he was, squirming. "You're messing up my hair!" Not that it wasn't already a scruffy mess. But the little bot just laughed hysterically as he held onto Zib, realising he hadn't done this in forever to his Master or Zib - and at that moment, somebody knocked on the door. Gir's eyecams telescoped, but still he was clamped around Zib's head.  
  
"Argh! Come on, Gir, I gotta get the door!" He tried to push the robot off with his claws, the sounds of struggle coming from just inside the door probably a bit of concern for the knocker. Eventually the door opened, and Cten looked in. She was in her usual disguise, alone. Beka obviously left at her base to deal with the fire.  
  
"What the-?" Gir looked up at Cten, his eyecams gleaming.  
  
"Ms. CeeTen!" he declared, and let go of Zib, who groaned and rubbed his head, the tiny robot's metal claws not being very comfortable. He felt around the couch for his glasses, misplaced by Gir's affections, holding them up by the handles and peering through them at the sitter.  
  
"Oh, hey Ms. Cten."  
  
"Hi Zib, Gir." she shut the door behind her and walked up to the two. "So I take by the urgency Zim had something big happening?"  
  
"Mom said he had some big meeting thing on the moon." Zib shrugged and set his glasses on his face mysteriously and tried to push his hair back into the mess it use to be, instead of the one it was now.  
  
"Ah." she then flicked at his hair, placing a few strands back in place. "Look I've never been a sitter before… I don't really know what it's all about."  
  
"It's all about the pentiums baby!" Gir screeched, and did a little dance number. Zib scrunched up, but was cooperative while she fixed his hair, before looking at Gir worriedly.  
  
"Just as long as you don't have any 'special' bed time stories like Poe did…" He shuddered at the memory.  
  
"Well, I know a few stories but I think the're suitable for you… and Gir." she glanced at the robot who was know break-dancing.  
  
"Like what?" Zib looked up curiously, "Mom never told me any stories and Dad doesn't know any good ones."  
  
"Hrmm… well I know the one abot the Three Irkens and the Big Bad Blorchian for one… Sleeping Tallest… some of the older fairy tales 'n stuff like that." she sat down besides him on the couch, "It's what the nurses read to us when we were still in the Nest."  
  
"In the Nest?" Zib turned his head, Zim never having told him the specifics of Irken reproduction.  
  
"Yeah, what you don't know?" she raised an eyebrow as she took her wig off. Zib shook his head,  
  
"Mom never told me much about how you aliens live."  
  
"Ah." Cten nodded, then hit a button on her pod and her disguise vanished, revealing her Irken maid's outfit. "Well if you wanna know…"  
  
"All he does is go on and on about how Irkens are superior to humans and stuff. I could use the info for my research an' stuff." He pulled out an oversized notepad and a pencil, looking up at Cten, "So what's this Nest thing?" He wondered, "And why don't you have a uniform like Mom's?"  
  
"Well, the Nest is where we Irkens are reproduced. Some are done naturally, some are done through genetic engineering, similar to how you came to be. But we're grown in these cases of green goop, and once we're the right size, the giant arm sparks us to life once we're given our paks." she pointed back to her pak, "An Irken can't be an Irken without it, without it, you'd be just a lump of flesh 'n bones. Yeah we can take it off, but not for long periods of time." she then gestured to her suit, "We're trained to be what we are, your Mom was to be an Invader, I was to be something else." Zib carefully noted these things, showing a dedication rare for one of his age. He looked back at his own pak,  
  
"I got one of those too. I'm not sure how to use it, though… it kinda does as it wants." He then wondered something, "What were you trained to be?"  
  
"Well if I tell you, you might tell your Mom…" she trailed off, if Zim found out she was really a maid instead of an Invader, he might catch on about the whole fake-plan thing.  
  
"Oh," He shrugged, letting it go, "What about the Reject? I mean, what kinda jobs do they do? Mom just said they were another group but that they were bad. He's not one for explaining much."  
  
"Ah, Poe told me about that… he was a Reject after he was born, and from then he painted Voot Cruiser for a living." she glanced up at the ceiling, where Zim's Voot Cruiser would be, if it was there. "After that, he just lived on the streets like other Rejects."  
  
"Oh. I wonder why Mom doesn't like him. I mean yeah, he's scary but he was kinda nice I guess." Zib looked around as if he'd said something he wasn't suppose to, and confided, "He's told me he thinks you hang out with the Reject too much. Well… he didn't really tell me, I just overheard him ranting. Dad says Mom isn't a very good Mom in that respect…" Zib trailed off rambling, having aquired the little kid habit of repeating things he's heard adults (well, adults to him) say.  
  
"I know what you mean Zib," she smiled, then folded her arms, "It's just, Poe's easier to get along with then your Mom, no offence intended. I like Zim, really I do but Poe's just… nicer. I guess." Zib nodded slightly,  
  
"He's not all that nice to me, and Dad says me and Gir are the people he treats the best." He shrugged, then giggled slightly, "I think he's just jealous."  
  
"Yeah well, Dib doesn't have friends… he has someone who crushes over him, but no one who likes likes him." she smiled gently, "But your Mom is very protective of you, so be thankful for that."  
  
"But I don't NEED to be protected," he insisted in a… Zimmy tone, "I'm a great… um…" he scratched the side of his head, "…whatever I am."  
  
"Still, I'm sure Zim would save you from something bad. Like… uh… I dunno." she shrugged, noticing Gir who was now fast asleep on the floor.  
  
"Well… I guess that's good," he mumbled, swinging his legs back and forth from the couch. He followed her gaze and scowled slightly at Gir, "I dunno why Mom likes him though. Gir doesn't listen at all."  
  
"I'm not sure either!" Cten looked to Zib, "Maybe he was just company since being away from your home planet would make one lonely."  
  
"Must be pretty desperate then," Zib shrugged and looked around, before his stomach, or something related, growled. He looked up at Cten pleadingly, "Were you gonna make dinner, Ms. Cten?"  
  
"Aw, course I will!" she got off the couch, "What do you want?"  
  
"Hm… D'you know how to make hamburgers?" He grinned hopefully, hoping that Zim hadn't warned her about not feeding him human food. She nodded, and headed to the kitchen.  
  
"Oh yeah, so do you want sauce and letuce on it or what?" Zib wrinkled the area where a nose would be,  
  
"Just sauce, veggies are nasty." Some preferences were universal among kids of all species, it seemed.  
  
"All right." she got to the table and pulled something from her pod, which looked similar to a small freezer, she pulled out what looked like hamburger meat.  
  
"I'll make a couple, if Gir wakes up he'll cry about us leaving him out of it." she freezer vanished into her pod, now replaced by what seemed like an Irken grill. She inserted the meat into it and shut the lid.  
  
"Yay!" Zib followed her to the kitchen, then danced around happily, "I haven't had burgers in FOREVER." He jumped up onto a chair and fidgited, waiting impatiently.  
  
"I haven't even tried them!" Cten replied, "But, thanks to those cook shows I know how to make them."  
  
"Gir watches those all the time," Zib snorted, "He gets confused when he can't find an already finished version of the meal in the oven or whatever when he tries it himself." He eyed the grill hungrily, "How long will that take?" He said, voice teetering on the edge of being whiney. Cten moved a small sliding plate thingie, looking in on them.  
  
"Not long now… now flip." she opened it up, and pulled a spatcula-like device, which had three heads to it. With that, she flipped all three at once, they turned a few times in mid air before landing back on the grill, which shut down over it again. "Zib, could you find the sauce somewhere?"  
  
"Um, alright…" Zib hopped down from his chair and opened up the fridge. Most of the stuff inside was either a mess left by Gir or something contained in Tupperware and neatly labled belonging to Zim, but Zib managed to find the ketchup and other toppings among Gir's messes. Taking the various bottles in his arms, he kicked the door closed and wandered over to Cten with some difficulty. She leant over and relieved him by taking some of the bottles from him, placing them on the table.  
  
"Mustard? Yuck." she scrunched up where her nose would be, but shrugged it off. She got a plate from her pod and placed it on the table, before whipping out some burger-buns and put them on the plate.  
  
"I just got everything that looked like it could go on a burger," He looked back at the fridge warily, "I could see why Mom isn't too keen on cleaning that out. Some of that stuff looked like it was alive…" He made his way back up onto his chair, squirming around eagerly.  
  
"Heh." Cten then got her super-spatcula out and the lid opened up. She quickly flipped the meat onto the buns, pre-sliced of course. "So you just want meat 'n sauce Zib? No cheese or anything?" she glanced at the doorway, seeing Gir peering into the room.  
  
"Oh, cheese is fine. Just no horrible veggie-things." He made a face, then noticed Gir and scowled, previously hoping to procure the extra burger for himself.  
  
"Okie dokie chiefy!" she put the cheese atop his meat, and splattered some sauce on. Then she wrapped it in a napkin and handed it over to him, then turned to Gir. "C'mon Gir, I got you one with everything." the little robot smiled and hurried up to the table, hands on the table and just tall enough to look over it.  
  
"Eeeevrythin'?" he asked quietly,  
  
"Yes. Mustard, sauce, letuce, cheese, more cheese, pickles, beans, bubblegum... and this brown thing I found." she holded up the burger as she placed the things on. "Ick." she mouthed to herself, but handed it to the robot. Zib tore into the burger, hardly remembering to take off the napkin first, stuffing half of it beyond his zipper-shaped teeth in the first bite.  
  
"This is good, Ms. Cten!" He praised muffedly as he chewed, sputtering crumbs onto his chin.  
  
"Glad you like it." Cten got hers ready last, slicing what looked like a pickle on, and some letuce on and bit into hers. Gir was making a mess by taking his burger apart while sat on the floor, eating each object seperately then smacking his lips together.  
  
"Yummy!" he cried happily, sauce dripping down his front. Zib finished his quickly and carelessly wiped off his mouth with his glove sleeve.  
  
"Hm…" He looked around the kitchen, "Now what?"  
  
"Now…" she finished eating hers, and looked at the mess Gir was in and made, and how Zib had sauce down his front. "…first we clean the kitchen, then you two."  
  
"Awwwwww!" Gir whined, folding his arms poutily.  
  
"Hey, I don't want Zim coming back and blaming me for a messy base!"  
  
"Clean? But-" Zib started to protest, then recalled how, well, anal Mom was about things getting messy. "Alright…" He sighed in resignment and slid off of his chair, getting a paper towel and swabbing off the area he'd scattered with crumbs on the table.  
  
"Thanks Zib." Cten then pulled a mop out of her pod, and used it to slide Gir across the room to clean the mess he had made. "What do want to do after then?" Gir now stood up and wiped his front with his hands, then sucked on his hands, to clean them too. Ick.  
  
"You're lucky," Zib mumbled, "You can be rinsed off in the sink or something. I get the cleaning gel.."  
  
"Hehehe!" Gir giggled and pointed at Zib, "Baby bath!" Zib clenched his fists and scrunched up his shoulders, glaring daggers at Gir,  
  
"I am not a baby!"  
  
"Baby!" the little robot retorted, poking his tongue out at Zib.  
  
"AM NOT!" Zib shrieked loudly, and tried to tackle Gir, but young alien hybrid versus a metal robot… well, Zib was felled and Gir didn't even have to do anything but stand there.  
  
"…ow."  
  
"Boys!" Cten, who had been busy with the stain now on the floor walked over and picked Zib up, "Gir, don't call Zib a baby, you hear me?" Gir frowned slightly and just kicked at the ground. She frowns, then looks down at Zib,  
  
"You okay Zib?" Zib whimpered and rubbed the area of his nonexistant nose, sniffling somehow.  
  
"He got my… um… place where my nose would be if I had one."  
  
"Gir, go to… uhh… your room I guess." Cten wasn't sure if Gir had a room or not, but the little bot left the room anyway, muttering about something or other incoharant that just happened. "…is he always like that?" she asked, tenderly rubbing where Zib's nose would be.  
  
"Yeah," Zib sniffed and rubbed at his eye with his gloves, displacing his glasses slightly, "He makes fun of me and stuff when Mom isn't around, and he listens to me even less than he will Mom."  
  
"Huh…" she glanced at the door, then at Zib. "I think Gir's jealous!" Zib blinked,  
  
"Jealous? Why?"  
  
"Maybe since he met your Mom it'd just been the two of them. Then, all of a sudden you arrive, and from what I can tell, your Mom probably talks to you nicer and more then he does to Gir." she got a tissue and wiped at his face, where a stain now was since Gir was still sticky when Zib had tackled him, "So, maybe he's just jealous of the attention you get."  
  
"Oh." Zib looked a bit guilty, before squirming beneath the napkin, "Well, still, he should go out and… find something else to do. He can't make fun of me just cuz Mom likes me better." He huffed.  
  
"I think that's how older siblings deal with younger siblings, if you can call Gir a sibling." she stood up, hands to her hips. "He acts like a kid, so I think it counts."  
  
"I guess, but still." He folded his arms and stared at the floor, "I thought he was suppose to be our robot slave, not another kid."  
  
"Now now, just because he's a robot doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings. But this conversation can wait, you need your bath."  
  
"Aw…" Zib scowled further, hopes that she'd forgotten dashed, "Fine, fine… The cleaning gel basin is somewhere in the main base…"  
  
"Well you show me, and we'll get it over and done with." she ushered him to the toilet, and the two climbed into the elevator. Unbeknownst to them, Gir is pulling on his doggie disguise, and is already out the front door and down the road. Gasp! He's regressing back to teen-angst! …if he had any. Zib grudgingly showed her where the basin was, and how he thought was the way to turn it on. But we shall leave this little scene right now, we'll hear about how it went. What with Zib about to be bathed by a girl instead of his Mom… we shall follow the run-away robot-puppy thing.  
  
Gir's walking down the street, his ears haunched back and he just looks upset. Aww, poor dear. Poe was wandering by in the opposite direction, having seen smoke rising from the direction of Cten's house and was on his way to investigate, when he nearly bumped into the sulky little dog-bot.  
  
"Hey-- Gir?!" Poe asked in surprise, unuse to seeing Gir displaying any emotion but insane enthusiasm.  
  
"Oh. hello Mr. Reject." the little robot replied, looking at the ground.  
  
"'Mr. Reject'? What happened to 'Poe'?" Poe kneeled down to be face-to-face with Gir, hands on his knees, "What's the matter, Zim being a jerk again?" Gir shook his head, looking up at Poe.  
  
"Master likes Mini-Master more." he folded his arms and made a humh sound, "I was here first." Poe blinked and pondered this, tapping his chin,  
  
"Well, Zib is still young. Zim's probably gotta take care of him more since he's.. um.. littler and doesn't know stuff." Poe didn't have much experience with family matters, but he tried. Gir stared at Poe blankly for a while.  
  
"Is he gonna be there in a week still?"  
  
"A week? He might still be there for years, Gir, you're gonna have to get use to him." He shrugged, "Zim probably likes you just as much as he did before, he just has to pay more attention to Zib because Zib isn't as.. uh.. self-sufficient as you. Yeah! Zim knows you can take care of yourself, but Zib's just a hatchling. Or… whatever he came out of."  
  
"…Master thinks I'm smart??" the puppy dog eyes lit up, Gir clasping his paws together and his tail wagging near 100 mph.  
  
"Psh, of course," Poe improvised, use to stroking egos in a somewhat kinder form of manipulation, "He must not have that same faith in Zib if he's taking extra care of him."  
  
"…oh!" Gir's eyes glanced away, at the smoke which was still billowing from Cten's base. "Lookie Poe, BBQ!" he then pointed at the smoke.  
  
"Um… I kinda doubt that," he winced slightly, "I was just on my way over to see what was up, wanna come?"  
  
"Okie dokie Poe!" Gir took Poe's hand into his paw, "Then I'll have a hotdog!"  
  
"Ehm, alrighty." Poe let the little robot hang onto his hand and started toward Cten's base, through the suburbs and out into the more rural area. The amount of smoke only seemed to increase as they got closer, "I don't think that's good… we better hurry."  
  
"Kay!" Gir's feet/rockets burst to life, and he shot off towards the house, dragging Poe after him. Poe yelped and hung onto his wig with his free hand, the metal tips of his boots sending sparks flying behind them as they flew across the ground. Needless to say, they got there pretty quickly.  
  
"Jeeze, what happened here?" The base was pretty much alight in flames, and stood in front of it with a single garden hose spraying water, was Beka. She sighed, and tossed it away. Gir watched the flames, mesmerised.  
  
"Oooooo…"  
  
"What started the fire?" Poe started towards Beka, eyeing the flames warily, "Maybe we can still put it out somehow…" He said, though he knew there wasn't much hope for the engulfed base.  
  
"I believe it was Mr. Dib, Mr. Poe." Beka replied, looking at him. "I detected him rushing away just as the fire started, at that time, Mr. Zim contacted mistress so she had to leave. I tried to save the base, but… it didn't work." Poe grunted at the report and shook his head,  
  
"He sure has been a pain lately…" He sighed and looked at the base, "Well, ehm, I'm sure everything that could be done was.. The underground base itself shouldn't be that affected.. Just need a new house." Suddenly the ground shook, and sounds of explosions from below could be heard. It happened a few times, until more black smoke floated up into the sky.  
  
"…there goes the base…" Beka sighed, antennae wilting slightly. "Mistress isn't going to be happy about her collection of human skin samples." Poe stumbled, regaining his balance, staring at the ground in disbelief and shaking his head, running his claws through his wig. The smoke reached them and he started to cough, eyes watering, being the only, well, organic being in the immediate vicinty.  
  
"…methinks we should get to Mr. Zim's base to tell Mistress about her base." Poe felt the metal hand of Beka take his, and another metal sound - Beka grabbing Gir, and her rockets jolted to life and Poe was once again being dragged back into town. Amazing how no one seems to notice the house on fire, or the flying green child with a robot and green dog…  
  
"Probably *HACK* a good… ACK!" Poe found himself airborn again, the last wisps of the smoke contrails from Gir's previous flight from that direction having just cleared. He squeezed his eyes shut and clung onto his wig, not that people were any more apt to notice an alien than they were a burning building or a robot or two.  
  
[To be continued]


	2. Chapter 3

The Battle of Gor  
Epic Two  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Meanwhile, back at ze base, Cten is now drying a kinda damp Zib with a towel, she's also semi-drenched.  
  
"I still don't see why you had to mess about so much…"  
  
"That stuff is cold!" He whined, but still writhed while being dried.  
  
Zim's odd little base appeared, the apex of the culdesac, and Poe wrenched his eyes open, coughing out the last of the smoke from his lungs, or a close approximation of them.  
  
"But still… and you've got nothing I haven't seen before either." she stood up and walked off, taking the towel with her, then turned back to him with his clothes.  
  
Beka eventually came to a landing outside, was about to knock but Gir happily opened it and bounded in. Poe blinked at Gir's eager entrance and wandered in. Zim had never let him actually be in his base before.  
  
"Something tells me Zim isn't home," he murmured, knowing the Invader would've been screaming at him to get out if he'd been around.  
  
"Hmm… Mini-Master was messy." Gir said, sitting on the couch.  
  
"Then possibly, Mistress is cleaning him." Beka replied, looking around. "Uhrm, where's the bathroom?" she asked Gir, who shrugged in responce.  
  
"Maybe we should make ourselves known first. Cten?" He called out, looking around the kitchen, "You here?"  
  
Cten is presently at the moment, got her back turned since Zib refused to get dressed with her watching. Her antennae twitch slightly, and looks up at the ceiling.  
  
"Did you hear something, Zib?" Zib looked up at the ceiling, straining to hear, then shook his head. His hair-antennae were slightly less well-equipped for hearing than normal Irken antennae.  
  
Poe scowled and wondered where the secret entrances to Zim's base were, opening up the garbage can and calling into it,  
  
"Cten?"  
  
"I did hear something. Zib, you wait here." Zib scowled and sat down, scrubbing his hair with the towel she left behind. She left the room, and looked at the two exits into the house, toilet or garbage can. Disgusted at how both exits ended up, she took the bin since she knew it was better then the toilet, that's for sure… Poe felt the garbage can start to move and yelped, nearly toppling into it. He stumbled away,  
  
"Cten?" Yup, Cten! Her gloved hands appeared from within the bin, and she pulled herself up. She blinked, still standing in the bin.  
  
"Poe? What are you doing here?"  
  
"Gir brought me here. Beka has… um… some bad news about what Dib did to your base." She stared at him for a while, then held a hand up.  
  
"Hang on, I gotta get Zib first." she lowered herself back into the bin, and after a minute or two she arrived back again, Zib slung over one of her shoulders. This time she climbed out. Zib blinked and allowed himself to be carted around. He was used to it, afterall, not to mention a little kid. He yelped when he saw Poe and scrambled to hide his face in Cten's shoulder, and Poe snickered,  
  
"Hey, Zib." Feeling Zib tighten his grip around her, Cten decided it was best she held onto him, sine it's easier walking around with a kid clinging to your shoulders then your legs.  
  
"I guess he says hi too…" she muttered slightly, then turned to Poe. "So what news is it?" Zib whimpered faintly and Poe shrugged, sighing,  
  
"The flames couldn't be put out, and they got into your lower lab… I guess they interacted with something and caused an explosion.." Cten's eyes widened, and her mouth hung open for a little while. Hearing Zib whimper made her snap back to reality.  
  
"…my base is gone?"  
  
"I don't know… the smoke was too thick for me to see anything. The explosions were pretty loud, though, and the one triggered other's…" Her antennae lowered in disbelife, and it seemed to Poe she was about to cry at any given moment. She shifted the weight of Zib slightly, and glanced to the side.  
  
"All, all my work I've done just…" she then frowned, a look Poe had rarely seen crossed her face. Very angry young lady this is now, and she turned her eyes to him, "And who is the prime suspect in the demolition of my base?" Poe winced slightly as she went through the various moods, then shook his head,  
  
"Beka said she detected Dib running away from the base right before the fires started and Zim called you."  
  
"Ah." she said simply, then walked past him. "Well then… once my job here is done I shall be working on the plans to rebuild my base, then get back at Dib." She entered the lounge and came face to face with Beka, who was actually very soot-ridden and messy. She looked quiet upset as her Mistress entered, but Cten just patted her head.  
  
"You did your best, Beka." Poe watched her go and followed,  
  
"What did Zim want, anyway, that was so urgent?" Zib just kept clinging to her, though he eventually started to relax, loosening his death-grip on Cten, looking over his shoulder at Poe warily.  
  
"He wanted me to watch Zib," she replied, taking a seat on the couch. "Seems he had a meeting on the Moon which was important, and since he claims not to entrust you with Zib ever again, I was the one to do the job." Beka meanwhile had began to clean herself with a cloth.  
  
"Aw, jeeze. All I did was tell him one story I had on hand." Poe sat down on the couch, though he kept his distance.  
  
"That wasn't a good story," Zib mumbled sulkily, and let got of Cten, sitting beside her, making a point to sit on the side that Poe _wasn't_ on.  
  
"Well, from what I heard it must have upset him a lot." Cten ran a finger through Zib's hair gently, "You gotta remember who you're telling the story to, Poe." she smiled slightly,  
  
"So I don't have a lot of experience with kids.. There aren't too many of them wandering around where I come from." He shrugged,  
  
"Still, you know you'll have to leave before Zim gets back."  
  
"Yeah, I know, but he isn't here yet, is he?" He grinned slightly. 

"Nooo… I'm not even sure when he'll come back either. Do you Zib?" Zib shook his head,  
  
"He just said he was gonna go. Maybe he told Gir?" Zib cast a glance over at the robot, who was sitting transfixed to the television.. which was currently off. "…not that that would've done any good."  
  
"Now Zib… we don't want a re-enactment of before." Zib just scowled and nodded grudgingly. Cten leant forward slightly,  
  
"Gir?" the little robot turned his head around to see the group, his body staying in the right direction.  
  
"Yeesssss?"  
  
"Did Zim tell you when he'd be back from his Moon Meeting?" she asked very slowly, so the robot heard each word and understood the question. Gir frowned and tilted his head to the side.  
  
"Uhhhrrmmmmm…" Poe rest his chin on his knuckles, leaning against the arm of the couch and watching Gir, then shrugged,  
  
"It's not that important. I can go now if there's a danger of him coming back soon…"  
  
"When da moon goes away!" Gir then chirped, turning his head back towards the blank television screen. Cten blinked,  
  
"…that's some meeting if it goes all night…" she mumbled, then sighed and sat back against the couch. "Oh well."  
  
"Unless he means when there's a lunar eclipse." Poe raised his eyelid, then looked over at Cten, "There's no real reason you can't work on your plans now, is there? There are two of us, and the SIR units, to keep an eye on Zib."  
  
"…but really… what can I do to get back at Dib for destroying my base?" she sighed, her antennae lowering again. "I've got the strength of a baby and just as meek." Poe shrugged,  
  
"So? You've got me to help!" He grinned slightly, then admitted, "Not that I'm all that strong, but I have… experience." Cten smiled slightly, resting one arm around Zib gently.  
  
"Aw Poe, you're so nice to me…" she looked over at him, "So what would you do?" Poe scratched the back of his head,  
  
"Aw, it's nothing… but… hm. Well, what's important to him? His research?"  
  
"To Dib? What's important to him that he uncovers us for the aliens we are and get to slice us up…" she scowled, "Little jerk." Poe grunted, pondering.  
  
"What are his weaknesses, then?" Zib looked a little uncomfortable at this conversation, staring down at his lap. Cten paused a moment to think this over, then glanced down at Zib. She then sat up slightly,  
  
"Zib?" Zib glanced up at her out of the corner of his eye, an easy thing to see since he was the only one there with technical pupils.  
  
"Yeah, Ms. Cten?"  
  
"Do you want something to drink from the kitchen?" she glanced at Poe, "Same question goes to you."  
  
"Alright," he said in a quiet, dispirited tone, before going back to staring at his lap.  
  
"What's Zim got to drink?" Poe asked.  
  
"Well depends what you want…" she got off the couch, "You can have the usual Irken juice, or I can make hot choclate or something." Gir's eyecams lit up at this,  
  
"I wanna chocolate." he said happily,  
  
"Okay Gir, hot choloate for you.."  
  
"I'd rather have hot chocolate. I got enough Irken juice back on Irk." Poe said with a face, then hopped off as well, before glancing back at Zib, who had drawn up his knees and was hugging them. "Hey, what's wrong?" Poe wandered back over to Zib and sat down beside him. Zib just made a noncommittal noise. Cten looked back at Zib, raising an antennae.  
  
"Is it that we're talking about your Dad, and it's upsetting you?" Zib winced slightly, indicating she'd hit the nail on the head.  
  
"It's just… I mean… I live with Mom and I talk to you guys more than him… And he doesn't like you… does that mean he doesn't like me?" He said, the last sentance coming out in a pathetic, quiet voice.  
  
"Oh I see." Cten said gently, she walked over and leaned against the couch arm and put her hand onto his shoulder gently. "Dib, well Dib is a very confusing person to work out, to me anyway. He hates us Irkens, cause for all he knows - Zim was sent to rule the planet. So that's why he's so bitter to myself, Zim and Poe. But you, you're not just an Irken and you know that, you're human and Irken." she looked at Poe, then down at Zib again. "I'm sure he likes you, and cares for you."  
  
"Yeah. He hates us because we're aliens; you're not."  
  
"But…" Zib shook his head slightly, "You guys don't like him either… And, well…" Zib frowned and shrugged slightly, "He's my Dad…" Poe sighed.  
  
"He's not very nice to us, Zib. We can only take so much." Pee looked back and forth, then added, "It's not like we were going to hurt him or anything."  
  
"I know Dib's always tried to get into Zim's base… but it's really upset me Zib that… that my house is gone now. I don't know if my Voot Runner survived, or it blew up in the explosion so I now might be homeless." Cten glanced at Beka who was now polishing her arms. "Look, if I do even attempt to get revenge - which is something a Maid as myself would never even attempt - it won't be physically harmful to…" she trailed off, realising she'd pointed out being a maid. Zib sighed.  
  
"I don't like it when he's mean either… but still." He shrugged and went quiet, before blinking up at Cten, "You're a Maid? Mom said you were his Invader assistant.." Cten sighed, no reason to keep up her act now.  
  
"Zib look, I'm a Maid. I've always been a Maid to the Tallest and they sent me here to make… to make your Mom beleive he was on a real mission. There." she folded her arms and looked away, "I'm not happy about it either."  
  
"On a real mission?" Zib looked confused, "I thought he was on a real mission though.."  
  
"Zib, from what I understand, your Mom wasn't very popular back on Irk…" Poe said.  
  
"Not very popular?" Cten looked aghast, "Zib, you have to know but never let your Mom know this but… he almost destoryed Irk. I'm not even sure why, but he did!" her face paled somewhat, as visions of the day flashed in her head. "Just, the robot of destruction seemed to be everywhere, Irkens were injured, houses destroyed… I believe that's why they sent Zim so far away - so he wouldn't cause problems." she sat down on the ground, sighing. "And they sent me, to make him belive it was more real." Zib looked a little pale as well.  
  
"I knew Mom liked destroying things… but…" He looked down at his shoes. "I guess I'm not suppose to tell him, huh?" Poe shook his head,  
  
"Who knows how he'd react."  
  
"He'd know who told you…" Cten replied, sighing, "I'd be in big trouble if he found out what I really was… he'd probably send me back and I'd never see you or Poe, or Gir again." Zib nodded slightly.  
  
"Alright…"  
  
"This is important, Zib, you gotta promise you won't tell." The Reject looked at the hybrid evenly, and Zib nodded quickly, edging away from Poe,  
  
"I… I promise."  
  
"He won't hurt you Zib, if he did he'd be in more trouble then he's worth." Cten grinned slightly, but then gave Zib a quick hug. "Thanks anyway." Poe snorted and crossed his arms in mock indignation, then stuck his tongue out at Zib.  
  
"I'm harmless."  
  
"You're scary," Zib mumbled, while hugging Cten back and hiding for protection. Cten laughed slightly, and since Zib was now giving her the idea he wasn't going to let go again, in fear of Poe, she lifted him up into her arms again.  
  
"How you look is so important, is it not Poe?" Zib clung onto Cten, and Poe shrugged,  
  
"Well, I don't try to be scary… just comes off naturally." He put on an evil, toothy grin.  
  
"Yeah, see?" she pointed to his teeth, then flicked at where his nose would be. "So, hot chocolate all around now is it?"  
  
"Ow!" Poe rubbed his nose-area, then nodded, "Sure. Zib probably wants some too, huh?" Zib frowned when the Reject guessed correctly, then huffed a bit,  
  
"I guess."  
  
"All right boys, and Beka, you want some?" Beka shook her head in responce,  
  
"I need to recharge, Ma'am."  
  
"Right then." Cten replied, and carried Zib through into the kitchen. Poe followed,  
  
"Can I help?" He offered, looking around, then muttered, "Not that I have any experience whatsoever…" Zib blinked at him and fought back a giggle.  
  
"Well you can do the water I guess… I saw a kettle like thing in the fridge - Zim knows why it's in there, I don't."  
  
"A… kettle? Um, sure…" He coughed and opened the fridge, digging through it until he found something that looked like it would be called a 'kettle'. He pulled out a carton of rotten milk and held it up, grinning hopefully, "…this it?" She smiled slightly,  
  
"Uh… no, that's… bad milk. The kettle's there." she pointed to the door, where the metal kettle was sat.  
  
"…oh! I knew that!" He stuffed the milk back in and pulled out the kettle, "I was… testing you. Yeah." Zib covered his mouth with one of his gloved claws to surpress the giggles, his bad mood quickly forgotten.  
  
"Heh, I'm sure you did Poe." she opened the cupboard and pulled out the jar of hot-chocolate grainy stuff and placed it on the table. "Now be careful when putting the water in that, we don't want any skin burns." Poe stared at the kettle for a moment, trying to think. He recalled seeing a snippet of a cooking show once, and remembered a human filling something that looked like this with water and setting it on a stove.  
  
He figured up how to open the kettle after some fiddling and ran it under the sink until water burbled out of the top, and set it on top something that looked like a stove. Zib burst out giggling, unable to contain it any longer.  
  
"What?!" Poe looked at him, wondering what he did wrong,  
  
"That's the toaster!" Zib said, between giggles.  
  
"Methinks you need to spend a little time with me in the kitchen Poe dear." Cten laughed, setting Zib on a chair and walked over to him. "Now look, that." she pointed at the stove, "Is the stove, you turn it on like this." she turned the small knob, which read 'front left'. "Now you put the kettle on the ring, but don't touch it." Poe grunted and tried to conceal his embaressment, setting the kettle on the matching ring.  
  
"Um…" he stared at it for a while, "Now what?" Zib just giggled from his seat, eventually calming down.  
  
"Now, you wait till steam starts coming up from the spout." she pointed to the spout, "That means the water has boiled, so you take it off the ring and place it on the draining board." she pointed to the draining board near the sink. While she said this, her pod opened and she pulled four mugs from it with her hands. Poe nodded and watched the kettle intently. Soon enough, it started to steam, and whistle as well.  
  
"Ngya!" Poe panicked and jumped back, "It's screaming!"  
  
"Yes Poe…" Cten replied gently as she scooped the chocolate into the mugs, "That means it's boiled, now here." she handed him a tea towel, "Use that when you pick it up, or you'll burn your skin." Poe looked down at the cloth, then up at the kettle nervously, setting a stern expression on his face and reaching over with the towel carefully, as though it might leap off and attack him. He finally grabbed it and swiped it off the stove, making it go silent,  
  
"HAH! Gotcha," He snerked victoriously at the kettle, and set it down on the board as he was instructed. Cten smiled, and politely clapped.  
  
"Very well done Poe, making hot chocolate has never been so enjoyable!"  
  
"Well, of course, would you expect anything less from me?" He grinned despite himself, posing haughtily in one of the many ways he'd seen Zim do so often, but it was much more effective with his height. He eyed the glasses and picked up the kettle again, pouring some carefully into the first mug, biting his lip and being careful not to make it overflow. As Poe did this, Cten pulled some fresh milk from her pod.  
  
"Handy to have a small freezer in this thing…" she replied, and as Poe began pouring into the second mug she applied the milk and stired with a spoon. Poe finished the last two mugs with more confidence, setting down the half-empty kettle.  
  
"There! That was easy enough." He wiped his forehead off with the towel and tossed it on the counter, looking over the mugs, "Which one's mine?"  
  
"This one." she handed one, which actually had his name written on it, in Irken of course. "Here Zib," she walked over and handed him a mug which had his name, written in both Irken and English on it.  
  
"Woah, cool! Personalized!" He grinned and took his mug proudly, taking a swig of his hot chocolate. His eyes widened slightly, "Hey, this is good! I usually just get a mug from the replicat-" His eyes suddenly widened further, tearing up, and he started to weeze, as it started to register that his tongue was burnt. Zib shook his head at Poe slightly and patiently waited for his own chocolate to cool off, stirring his claw-finger in it, gloves protecting him.  
  
"Yes Poe… you should remember the water is hot…" Cten headed back to him, picking up her own mug and blew gently on his mug. "Helps to wait a while. Gir!" she called out suddenly making Poe jump a little bit, and Gir zipped into the room, arms open for his mug.  
  
"Smart thing when you have to be…" she handed him his mug, with 'Gir' written on. He took it and hurried out again. Poe whimpered slightly, his segmented tongue hanging out of his mouth limply, smoke rising from it. He nodded weakly, rubbing his eyes with his wrist and withdrawing his tongue, once the pain wore off, and glared at his mug, taking an experimental sip this time. Zib did the same, slurping slightly, wiping off his chin with the collar of his shirt,  
  
"This's good too, Ms. Cten! You're a good cook!"  
  
"Aw, thank you Zib…" she sipped her own mug, "But thank Poe also, he did most of it." Zib looked up at her blankly, with slight confusion,  
  
"But he's a Reject… Mom said…" Poe scowled and mumbled to himself, busying himself with sipping.  
  
"Yes, I know what your Mom says. But, credit is where credit's due." she replied simply. Zib scratched the side of his head,  
  
"Um… thanks, Poe."  
  
"Welcome," Poe responded simply from behind his mug, finishing off his cocoa quickly.  
  
"Isn't so hard, is it?" she asked Zib, before sipping her hot chocolate.  
  
"I guess not. But still, Mom told me I shouldn't be nice to him, cuz he wasn't like us.."   
  
"Like us.." Cten replied, then looked at Poe, then to Zib while pointing to Poe. "Take a good look at him, what differences do you see from him and your Mom? Really, honestly. Besides the teeth and the long antennae, he's still an Irken." Poe put down his mug and turned around, raising his eyelid slightly. Zib stared at him, then another look of confusion crossed his face.   
  
"I don't know what to think anymore," Zib mumbled, "Mom tells me one thing, Dad tells me another, you two tell me other stuff.."  
  
"Oh well." she said, sipping her mug again. "You're your own person Zib, you do as you want." Zib nodded and thought this over. Poe watched him for a moment and sighed,  
  
"Don't worry about it, Zib. Just finish your hot chocolate, it's getting cold." Zib looked up in slight alarm and quickly took another sip.

"And after that, I think it's time for you, little Zib to head to bed." Cten glanced up at the clock, which read 9:00pm. Zib blinked and looked over at them from behind his now empty mug, his antennae-hair drooping.  
  
"Aw.." He set his mug down and scowled at his lap, having hoped they would forget.  
  
"Oh come on Zib, what would we say if your Mom came home and you were still up?" Cten walked over to him and picked up his empty mug, "We'd all be in biiiig dookie."  
  
"I guess so." Zib got down off his chair, then quickly glared at Poe, "No bed time stories, though!" Poe grinned innocently and shrugged,  
  
"Don't worry, I don't have my book with me."  
  
"All right, no stories from neither of us." Cten placed the mugs into the sink. Zib looked a bit disappointed, then quickly shook it off,  
  
"Fine! I'm too old for such sillyness anyway."  
  
"Oh, yeah, you're teetering on the brink of adulthood," Poe snickered slightly, wandering up to Zib, "Where's your room anyway?"  
  
"Upstairs."  
  
"Okay Zib, lead the way. But…" she paused and pulled a book out from her pod, and held it out to him. "If you can't fall asleep you can look at the pictures of my book anyway." Zib took the book, looking at it, smiling slightly,  
  
"Thanks, Ms. Cten." He nodded, starting toward the closet door that actually opened up into an elevator, opening it with some difficulty and stepping inside.  
  
"Oo, nifty." Cten said, stepping inside and holding the door open for Poe, who wandered in last, and the elevator went upstairs after Zib stood on his tip-toes and hit a button. A few seconds later it stopped, opening up on the level with the Voot runner, though it'd been converted into Zib's room, sorta, hastily made since Zib hadn't exactly been expected. He wandered over to his bed and took off his coat and shirt, replacing them with his PJ top. Cten folded his shirt and placed it on a stool, then flopped his jacket over it.  
  
"Very nice…" she said to herself, glancing around.  
  
"Mom had the computer make a room for me, with whatever was lying around," Zib said as he struggled out of his pants and into his PJ's, climbing into bed. The room had the same strange, random taste that the rest of the house had, with a large photo of a moose hanging on one wall, and a purple sink jutting out of the wall, not connected to anything in particular.  
  
"I can see that…" Cten smirked at the moose picture, then looked down at Zib. "Now, do you need anything before we go?" Zib thought a moment, then shook his head,  
  
"I'm alright."  
  
"Sure you don't need to be tucked in?" Poe teased, grinning, and Zib scowled at him,  
  
"No!"  
  
"My aren't we a big boy, no story, no tuck in, no glass of milk or anything…" Cten mused aloud, smiling at him.  
  
"Of course!" Zib puffed out his chest, "Mom said I needed to be tougher since Irkens don't need stuff like that."  
  
"Ah, Zim forgets his days in the Nest then…" Cten said more to herself, but leaned over and gave Zib a quick peck on the forehead. "G'night Zib, sleep tight and don't let the bugs bite." Zib let a small smile escape when he was given a good night kiss, but quickly put on a scowl, scrunching up his shoulders.  
  
"Night," he said, snuggling into bed. Poe watched from the doorway, arms folded, chuckling to himself. Cten smiled and placed the book besides him and walked to the door, then looked back at him.  
  
"I'm leaving the light on just a little bit, so enough light if you ever want to look at the book, okay?" Zib nodded, looking over at the book, but resisted the urge to reach over for it.  
  
"Alrighty… Thanks Ms. Cten."  
  
"You're welcome Zib." with that she turns the light lower, and walks towards the elevator. Poe waved to Zib and followed her into the elevator.  
  
[To be continued]


	3. Chapter 4

The Battle of Gor  
Epic Two  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Four  
  
"Zim isn't the first person I would've chosen to be a Mom," Poe grunted slightly, once they were out of hearing range.  
  
"Me neither." she replied, stepping into the elevator. "Zib's such a nice little guy, but I can see him being corrupted by living with Zim."  
  
"Can't say Dib would be any better, given his recent actions." He shook his head, "Have any idea of where we were gonna stay until we have a new base, anyway? I mean, you could probably convince Zim to let you move in…"  
  
"Eee, no. I couldn't stand living with Zim again… when Zim comes back, I'm heading to where the base was and try to find my Voot Runner." she hit the 'house' button and the elevator began to move. "If it's still intact, I'll make another one." Poe nodded slightly and stretched.  
  
"If it isn't, I know of a few places that are fairly abandoned. I use to stay there when I was hiding from Gor."  
  
"Ah Gor… wonder what he's up to right now…" she stepped out the elevator as it arrived back at the house level, and seeing Gir fast asleep in the middle of the kitchen, curled around his mug.  
  
"Who knows. Maybe he found someone else to bother." Poe stepped out as well, scowling at the memory of 'his' SIR unit, "He hasn't bothered me so far, at least." Poe looked down at Gir, "Nice to see he's back to normal."  
  
"What do you mean?" she looked at him, before pulling on human rubber gloves in order to do the dishes.  
  
"He's the reason I'm here in the first place. I ran into him when I went to investigate the smoke rising from the direction of your base, and he was sulking. It was very… un-Girlike." He looked at the dishes, "Need any help?"  
  
"Oh no, I'm fine. I didn't know he ran off." Cten picked up a sponge and squirted it with some water, beginning to wash up the mugs. "Must have been because of him and Zib 'fighting'."  
  
"They were fighting?" Poe blinked, looking down at Gir, "Doesn't strike me as the aggressive type, and neither does Zib, unless he's inherited his 'Mom's temper."  
  
"Gir picks on Zib when Zim isn't around apparantly," Cten said, cleaning the mugs out. "Seems to me, there's sibling rivalry between the robot and the spawn."  
  
"Jeeze. Alien-human clone experiment bickers with the intelligence-gathering unit belonging to his extratresstrial Mother; on the next Myserious Mystries." He shook his head, leaning back on the counter, sitting on it.  
  
"Heh, yeah that seems about right doesn't it?" Cten stopped doing the dishes and left them to drain, taking the gloves off. "But I love em both so much still."  
  
"Hm… I guess they're alright." He shrugged nonchalantly, not one to express affection much, "Gir and Beka are certainly preferable to Gor, but that's not saying much."  
  
"I always was the odd one out in the Nest and Academy, making 'friends' even if they didn't want to be." she leaned against the sink, "But I find Zib and Gir to be quite interesting to be around, plus, I get practice for when and if I get to raise my own smeets one day." Cten stopped to flick at her antennae which wasn't curling properly, "If I ever do have smeets that is." Poe raised his eyelid slightly, then shrugged.  
  
"You seem to be doing fine. You'd probably make a good Mom, unlike some Irken we know."  
  
"Heh, not Zim's fault he has no recolection of his time in the Nest." she replied, "He was quite the baby."  
  
"He was?" Poe found that hard to believe, "Oh well. I guess I can't be too hard on him, not like I'd do any better." Cten smiled slightly,  
  
"I was in the same Nesting Group as he was, and you don't forget someone like Zim in a long time." she sighed, glancing upwards. "He had the Nurses on full alert, crying to be fed, crying to have a different bed, crying cause another Irken looked at him funny… good black-mail material, is it not?"  
  
"Oh yeah." Poe grinned, slightly evilly, then remembered his own hatchlinghood days, "The factory I was at got boring quick. Most of the hatchlings were Rejects as well, or orphans, or just unwanted. Needless to say, they weren't the happiest bunch."  
  
"How were they for you?" she scratched the side of her head.  
  
"Most of us ignored each other. Our supervisors didn't like us talking too much, they always thought we were up to something. Some of us managed to finally form an escape plan one time, but we didn't all get out." Poe shrugged, "I guess I got lucky."  
  
"Man…" Cten shook her head, "I wonder how life is for babies on this planet…"  
  
"From what I've seen, their parents are pretty attached to them. Most of the time, at least. They seem to take care of their young far longer than Irkens do."  
  
"Luckies." Poe nodded slightly,  
  
"I see them in the park all the time. They're either taking care of babies or playing with kids."  
  
"I would have loved to have lived with my parents… least see where I get what makes me, me." she sighed, folding her arms. "Humans don't know how good they got it. They have loving parents who look after and care for them, answering to their every whim… us, we're spat out of a machine and sent out to be what we were planned to be." Poe looked over at her slightly, frowning.  
  
"I got to meet my parents…" He said quietly, "Though I never really knew them, so they weren't really very… parental, I guess." She looked over at him, raising her antennae slightly.  
  
"Lucky."  
  
"Well… Y'know General Kantos? The one who helped finish off the last of the Blorch resistance?" Poe took his antennae and bent them back halfways after the first kink and held them out to the side, mimicking how his Father's sat, "…see the resemblance?" Cten's eyes widened slightly  
  
"…you're Dad's _the_ Kantos?"  
  
"Yeah," he scratched the back of his neck in slight embaressment, "Mom's Noble Lady Xyth.. She said my Rejection was the reason she started fighting for Rejects in the first place." He looked at his lap. Cten stood there quietly for a while.  
  
Poe didn't realise how much knowing who his parents were meant to her, she'd always wanted a family - being a maid or not - and had considered the Tallest as her new family, but being shot out into Earth so quickly had upset her more then she had let on. She coughed and shook her head, blinking out of her thoughts again.  
  
"Well… you've got very well-known parents, and your Mother obviously cared…"  
  
"I guess. But it makes me wonder what I could've had, you know? Had my skin been a few shades darker, or my antennae a bit shorter… I mean, I could've been someone, instead of just another piece of street trash." He grumbled slightly and picked at his well worn coat, noticing her silence, "What's the matter, Cten?"  
  
"…stupid memories Poe." she replied quietly, and rubbed her arm. "I was almost considered a Reject cause I once called one of the Nurses 'Mommy', I guess, I guess family is just a big thing I've always wanted." Poe frowned slightly, hesitating for a moment before placing his claws on her shoulder,  
  
"Well, hey, you've got kind of a weird extended family here."  
  
"Yeah, and for that I'm really thankful… Zib means more to me then he realises, he's like a nephew or dare I say, a son to me sometimes." she looked at Poe, putting her hand onto his. "Zim's like my bizzare brother or something, while Gir's like a little kid, and you… well you're something special to me." Poe blinked slightly, looking at her hand.  
  
"Special?" He turned his head, not quite sure what she meant, or at least, not wanting to make any assumptions. She nodded, but knowing Poe almost inside out, she knew better then to continue talking about the subject.  
  
"Yeah. That's all."  
  
"Heh." He smiled slightly and let the subject drop, shrugging, "Well, you're special to me, too. Can't say I'm all that close to the others, I'd go so far to say most didn't like me."  
  
"It's all the idea of perfection and idealism Poe, what you look like is what you're meant to be. When I look at you, I don't see a Reject. I see my friend." she let go of his hand and sighed, "Correction, best friend." Poe blinked, before his face broke out into an almost goofy smile,  
  
"Wow… thanks. No one's ever called me their friend before, much less best one." He squeezed her shoulder slightly, "You're mine, too, you know. Heck, I'd say you were probably my only one."  
  
"Glad to know we got mutal agreement, if I wasn't such an Irken I'd hug ya." she grinned back at him, almost as goofily.  
  
"Hm… Well, we're not on Irk, are we?" He grinned and let go of her shoulder, giving her a one-armed hug, "I won't tell Zim if you won't. I don't feel like being lectured about protocol." She smiled and hugged him back, one-armed too.  
  
"I won't tell Zim at all."Poe smiled backdown at her, and it would've been something odd for, say, Gir to wake up on and see. The two just sorta stand there, half-hugging each other and smiling, and sat in the middle of the room, who just woke up is Gir. He stares at the two for a little while.   
  
"Awwwwwwww…" he says finally. Poe blinked a few times and jerked his head toward Gir, his cheeks flushing slightly.  
  
"Oh… um, Hi, Gir."  
  
"Youse two are so kawaii!" Gir declared, walking over to them. Cten looked somewhat confused, a little too surprised and embarassed to actually do anything, including holding onto Poe.  
  
"…ka-wa-ee?" Poe dropped his arm as well, coughing and tucking it behind his back quickly, "Uh… if you say so."  
  
"Are ya gonna marry?" the little robot asked, "Y'know like the soapies on TV!" Cten blushed deeply and looked away. Poe flinched, his own cheeks tinting a darker shade of red, and mumbled,  
  
"We're just friends, Gir."  
  
"That's what they always say!" Gir said in an almost teasing voice, then dropped the subject. "Izzit bed time?"  
  
"Huh? Yeah, probably," He looked at a clock and shrugged, then looked down at Cten, "I guess that means it's time for me to go."  
  
"I guess..." she mumbled, still looking at an interesting tile on the floor.   
  
"Sleepie!" Gir declared, and hurried out the room.  
  
"So, where should we meet tomorrow to investigate our new living arangements?" Cten asked, glancing at him.  
  
"Hm… I'll probably be around my tree." He'd picked a specific tree for his sitting purposes and had claimed it as his own, near the edge of the park.  
  
"I'll meet you there then." she said, as the two walked to the front door. Poe nodded, pulling his wig out of his coat and tucking his antennae under it, sliding his contacts in. He opened the door and glanced down at her,  
  
"Good night."  
  
"Good night Poe." she replied, not bothering with her disguise since it was late, and no one was really around. "Take care." He smiled,  
  
"You too. Good luck dealing with Zim whenever he gets back." He tugged his wig forward by the bangs and stepped out.  
  
"Heh, thanks." Cten watched as he walked down the path, and off into the night. She sighed and closed the doors. She looks around the empty room, Beka shut off in the corner and Gir curled up into a ball on the couch.  
  
"…oh well." she walks to the couch, got up and snuggled against the small robot and eventually fell asleep. All was silent for a while, until a shrill scream rang out from upstairs. Cten's eyes snapped open, and her Irken-alertness - _she had aquired this since Tallest Purple used to buzz her in the middle of the night for his snacks_ - was switched on. She looked up at the ceiling.  
  
"Zib!" she said, and darted to the closet, which became the elevator and it took her up to his room, she turned the light on and hurried into the room. "Zib! What's wrong?" Zib was clinging his blanket, wide-eyed and mumbling and whimpering, jumping when Cten ran in until he recognized her voice, not having his glasses.  
  
"M-m-miz C-cten?" He shook his head slightly, "I had… I had a bad dream…" She picked up his glasses and placed them on as she sat on the bed besides him,  
  
"Aw Zib, it's okay now…" she gently put her arms around him, giving him a hug. Zib clung into her tightly and sniffled, burying his face in her side and only displacing his glasses again,  
  
"I dreamt they captured you 'n Mom an' Gir an' even Poe and me too… And they were doing all these experiment thingees on Mom!" He whined. Cten rubs his back as she rocks back and forth gently,  
  
"Well it was only a bad dream Zib… they can't hurt you…"  
  
"It seemed real-like though," he sniffled, but slowly started to calm down, looking around the room, "It gets kinda creepy in here when it's dark…"  
  
"How about I sleep with you tonight, will that make you feel better?" she stroked his hair gently while still hugging him. Zib blinks,  
  
"You… you'd do that?" He looked up, rubbing his eyes with his claw, "Mom never did that…"  
  
"Well, I will." she smiled. He smiled a bit,  
  
"Alright, I guess…" He wasn't too keen on his big-boy act now, it seemed, and rested against her, eyes drooping. She pulled the blanket over her and took his glasses off his face and placed them to the side, then lays down keeping one arm around him. She shuts her eyes as one of her pod legs stretches out and turns the light off. He was soon fast asleep again, comforted by her presance, and curled up slightly, snuggled up against her. And Cten fell asleep soon after, feeling very much needed with Zib curled up against her. The door then slowly opened, and Gir walked into the room and climbed up and curled up besides Cten's other side, so you can imagine how cute this looks right now.  
  
Morning soon came, and Zim piloted the Voot Cruiser above the roof of the house, pressing a button that was the equivillent to a garage-door opener on the control panel, causing the roof to slowly (and loudly) open, light pouring in on them. Cten squirmed, her eyes slowly opening and being partially blinded by the light. She then noticed Gir fast asleep besides her, and Zib, now hugging her around the middle still asleep too. She covered both their ears/equivalants with her hands as the Voot Cruiser landed.  
  
"I can't believe they said my invitation was a mistake! Smelly fools, all of them!" Zim ranted as the Voot Cruiser's window opened, and he stomped out in a huff. He then noticed the group all curled up in Zib's bed, a very brief 'aww' look crossing his features before it was quickly crushed, and he wandered over to the bed, the roof closing above them.  
  
"Did these two behave?" He asked simply of Cten.  
  
"Well… Gir and Zib had a small fight but they're all right again." she sat up, Zib still holding onto her. "But Zib had a bad nightmare so I slept with him to calm him down." she replied simply. "I guess Gir got lonely." Zib blinked his eyes open, looking up at Zim.  
  
"Mom!" He shouted, letting go of Cten and scrambling off the bed, latching onto Zim's leg. Zim looked a bit surprised,  
  
"Eh? That's unnessicary, Zib!" He tried to shake the hybrid away, but he held on tight, talking a million words per minute,  
  
"I had such a bad dream but Ms. Cten was here and she was real nice she made us dinner and gave us hot chocolate and a bath which I didn't like but-"  
  
"Aw, live in the moment Zim." Cten smiled, then Gir slowly awoke, and saw Zim there.  
  
"Master!!" the little robot declared, following Zib's suite and clung around Zim's other leg. "I miss-ed you so much Master!" Zim looked down at his 'children' and fought the urge to smile, instead sighing exaggeratedly and trying to make his way toward the elevator,  
  
"This is ridiculous. Both of you, walk on your own!" He snapped slightly, cranky and tired like from the meeting, and Zib frowned and let go reluctantly. Cten got off the bed and quickly pulled the sheets straight, and walked to Zim and helped him by pulling Gir off. Gir, very happily held onto Cten.  
  
"I wuv you Ms. CeeTeen!" he declared, snuggling against her.  
  
"Aw, 'n I wuv you too Gir." she gave him a hug back, then looked to Zib. "So Zib, how 'bout I make you guys breakfast so your Mom can just do his Mom things?" Zim pulled his wig off by the top and popped out his contacts, stuffing them back into his pod and grumbling to himself. Zib looked up at her hopefully, lighting up,  
  
"Okay!" He ran into the elevator in front of Zim, nearly tripping his 'mom'. Zim stumbled, but quickly righted himself, scowling at Zib,  
  
"What'd I tell you about running around like an Earth monkey-pig?"  
  
"..whoops." Zib looked down at the ground, and Zim sighed, stalking into the elevator.  
  
"The joys of Motherhood, huh Zim?" Cten asks as she accompanies the two in the elevator, still holding Gir.  
  
"Joy! Bah! Whoever said it was a joy obviously never had any spawn!" Zim folded his arms and glared at the elevator, stabbing a button with a pod-leg. They went downstairs, and Zim started toward the garbage can, preparing to go down into his base, when he recalled something and turned to Cten,  
  
"I want to, ehm, commend you on your spawn-sitting services, solider!" He said stiffly, the closest thing to a 'thanks' one was likely to get out of him.  
  
"I am very glad that I met your approval, Zim." Cten gave him a nod in responce, "But I am afraid to inform you that whilst I was doing my duties here, my base was destroyed at the hands of Dib, so afterwards I shall have to leave to induct a search to see if my Voot Cruiser survived the blaze."  
  
"Her house go woosh!" Gir declared, leaping out of her arms and landing on the ground. Zim scowled,  
  
"That stupid stink! Well, I'm certain you will be able to provide accomodations for yourself soon enough. Feel free to leave at will whenever you get done preparing this break-fast for Zib and Gir." He stepped on the pedal to open the garbage and climbed in, disappearing down into his base.  
  
"...yup." Cten sighed, then turned to Zib who was still in his PJ's. "So! What do you want for breakfast, Zib?"  
  
"Hm.." Zib wondered, "Got any pancakes?" He saw those on TV once, but'd never had the chance to sample them.  
  
"I know how to make em, so, sure!" she replied, her pod already opening up.  
  
"Yummy!" Gir declared, already sat at the table holding a knife and fork.  
  
"Yay!" Zib hopped up into his seat, idly wondering where Gir got the silverware, and sat patiently. "How do you make them?" Cten got a bowl out from the cupboard and placed it down, and proceeded to pull the ingredients from her pod.  
  
"Well, 1/3c of Flour..." she emptied an already full cup into the bowl, "One tablespoon of sugar..." she droped it in, "2 tablespoons of baking powder..." she emptied it in, GIr watching wide-eyecammed as she did. "Two eggs." she broke both a the same time, emptying the insides in and she put the shells away.  
  
"And beat!" she held up a whisk and began to beat. Zib watched, enraptured, his youth making him curious. He peered at the off-white goop in the bowl, scowling a bit,  
  
"That doesn't look like the pancakes I saw though.."  
  
"I know, now I gotta make em!" she said, grinning. She went to the stove and turned it on, pulling a spatchula and a frying pan from her pod. She proceeded to poure the goop onto the frying pan, not before putting some butter in it first, and began to make them. Gir got to his feet and followed after her, standing on his tip 'toes' to see. Zib wascurious as well, squirming out of his chair and wandering over to try and sneak a peek with Gir, using his slight height over the robot to his advantage. Eventually she finished making the pancakes, putting them onto a plate.  
  
"All right boys, sit down." Zib hurried back and looked at them curiously,  
  
"Got any of the brownish clear goop they put on them in the show?"  
  
"Golden Syrup or Mapal?" she asked, putting plates in front of the two, as well as knife and fork for Zib.  
  
"Um.." He looked blank for a moment, then shrugged, "Both?" He grinned up at her with puppy-dog eyes, despite the odd brown-on-magenta combonation.  
  
"...course sweety." she pinched his cheek as she grinned.  
  
"Yay!" He grinned even more widely, scooting his chair up to the table noisily and holding his knife and fork in preperation.  
  
"'N yer sweet too." she leaned over and just flicked Gir's antennae, making the little robot laugh in responce. She pulled two bottles of syrup from her pod, seems she has a lot in there, and handed one each to the two boys.  
  
Zib reached over and stabbed a few pancakes on his fork, tugging them onto his plate, then picked up both bottles of syrup, gloping rather copious amounts of both onto the pancakes. Cten bit into her own pancake she had saved, plain with nothing on it.  
  
Gir was slobbering his pancakes down hungrily, making very appreciative eating sounds. Zibfinally decided he'd had enough syrup when it started to run off the plate, and picked up a stabbed piece of pancake, munching it eagerily and getting almost as much syrup on his face as he had the plate. Cten shook her head as she looked at the mess both were now in,  
  
"I sure have my work cut out for me." she thought to herself as she licked her gloves fingers. Zib quickly finished, his face, shirt, even his hair a syruppy mess now, but he looked so horribly happy it was worth it.  
  
"That was great!" He gushed, hugging his still-messy plate happily, "That was the best breakfast ever!"  
  
"Well, I'm glad you liked it..." Cten giggled slightly at the mess he made, and Gir was in an even similar mess as well.   
  
"Mmmm..." he said, licking his plate eagerly. Zib leaned back in his seat, looking content, before he noticed the clock,  
  
"Hey, Gir, it's time for the Scary Monkey Show!" He put his plate back down and jumped off of his chair, racing into the living room to watch what was apparently a favourite show of he and his 'sibling'.  
  
"WOO!" Gir cheered, racing after him. "Dibs on couch dibs on couch!!" the little robot cheered from the other room. Cten shook her head and collected the plates,  
  
"I am so made for Motherhood it's sad." she said.  
  
"I was here first!!" Zib clung onto his cushion defensively.  
  
[To be continued]


	4. Chapter 5

The Battle of Gor  
Epic Two  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Five  
  
Meanwhile, Poe sitting in his tree, watching the sky blearily; heck, maybe he'd slept in it, who knew. Then he heard a familiar whistling tune on the breeze, and glanced down. There was Dib, in camoflauge and carrying a backpack. He seems pretty happy as he's making his way down the pavement.  
  
Poe snapped awake, glancing around until he spied the source of the whistling. He narrowed his eyes and leapt down from the tree, directly in Dib's path, and loomed over him, looking very unhappy with the human boy. Dib came to a stop, and stared blankly at Poe for a while, then looked somewhat nervous now.  
  
"…what is it?" he asked.  
  
"_You_," He nearly growled, stepping forward, "Cten and I are out of a place to sleep now, you know that?"  
  
"What, just cause I was there you thought I did it?" Dib took a step backwards, the nervous look now over come with an angry look.  
  
"Who _ELSE_ would?" Poe glared at him, acting unusually aggressive for the usually passive, doormat of an Irken, "It's in the middle of the country, and you're the only one on this planet who knows we're aliens, much less cares about stopping Zim! And you just happened to be there?"  
  
"For your _information_, I was coming back from checking my bigfoot traps and I see some weird alien-robot-dog thingie near that place, I go forward to try and capture it and the next thing I know the whole place is on fire!" Dib narrowed his eyes at the alien, sure he was fraid but he wasn't about to show it, the alien might suck his brains out if he did. "So don't blame _me_ because you and your spouse is now out of base and home!" Poe bristled and backed away slightly, cheeks flushing againg,  
  
"She's my friend," He shook his head, "Who set her base on fire then?" he mumbled, assuming by robot-alien-dog thing he'd meant Beka.  
  
"You want proof? Fine!" Dib pulled his backpack off and slammed it on the ground, he then searched around and pulled out his polaroid, handing a photo to Poe.  
  
"THERE! Proof of the robot-alien-dog thing setting fire to your precious base! I wish I was the on who thought of it though." on the photo, it showed a very familiar looking robot clad in a doberman-disguise, holding a flame-thrower.  
  
"What the… GRAH!" He snarled loudly, complete with fangs, and threw the photo to the ground, pounding his fist into his claws, "I'm going to kill him," he mumbled dangerously.  
  
"I take it you know it then." Dib said, picking the photo up and shoving it back into his backpack.  
  
"Yes… He is… was… sort of… my SIR unit." He paced back and forth in irritation, "He's not exactly programmed right, though. I should've KNOWN he'd do something like that… Cten could've been hurt!" He started cursing various things under his breath, and satisfied himself by punching the tree, causing some bark to fly off. "…ow."  
  
"So wait, robots can turn against their masters?" Dib's eyes widened, then returned to normal. Maybe he could get Gir to turn against Zim and take the alien out for him, then he could turn the robot in as proof of alien existance…  
  
"Normally, no," Poe rubbed his nearly broken wrist and knuckles, muttering, "Gor used to belong to another Invader and I… kinda borrowed him," Poe looked around with shifty eyes, "I had to reprogram him to recognize me as his master and something botched up."  
  
"So what, he won't do what you say like Gir?" Dib scratched his head, this was informative stuff! He'll have one heck of a journal entry to write when he gets home. Poe glanced over at Dib,  
  
"He thinks he's the master and that I belong to him. He's rather… persuasive too."  
  
"So I take you left and he hunted you down, thought you were in the base and tried to kill you?" Dib folded his arms.  
  
"He didn't want to kill me." He grumbled, shaking his head, "He can track me down with his guidance chip. He knew I wasn't there… he just wanted to destroy my new home, and he probably wouldn't have minded taking Cten out either." He growled and pondered kicking the tree, but wasn't that dumb.  
  
"Whoa, maniac robots sweeping the town, destorying things… how could no one not notice that?" Dib pondered a loud, then looked to Poe. "Well! Hope… uh, hope things work well for you and Cten then. I mean, not that I want you guys not to be found out for the aliens you are, but I wouldn't appreciate having MY house burnt to the ground by someone I hate." Poe nodded briefly and ran a claw through his wig.  
  
"Thanks… I think. Sorry I snapped at you," he mumbled, the anger passing and becoming guilt, since it was, in his mind, primarily his fault Gor'd done what he had.  
  
"Eh, think nothing of it." Dib pulled his backpack back on again, "I get that treatment from Zim when I forget to pick Zib up for my weekend of looking after him."  
  
"Being like Zim is the last thing I want to do," he pushed his bangs out of his face and leaned against the tree. Poe just angsted, kicking anything neraby that wasn't animate and wasn't rooted to the earth, waiting for Cten to show up.  
  
"Don't blame you. Well, see ya!" with that Dib made his way past him, and out of the picture.  
  
Meanwhile, back at Zim's place, the Scary Monkey Show now finished, Cten was not just giving Zib a bath, but both Zib and Gir, in the cleansing gel. Since the gel was specified to clean off any mess, sticky or not, both needed it. Zib was quite disgruntled at having had two baths so close together, but even he had agreed that he was a mess. He scowled ahead as his hair was scrubbed, while Zim tinkered about the base, doing… Zimmy things. Gir giggled as he managed to balance the gell on his head, and eventually Cten pulled Zib out.  
  
"And here you go, all clean again." after drying him off, she gave him some clean clothes and then got to work on drying Gir, who was easier since he was already able to dry himself. "And after this, I have to go find Poe and talk about our living arangements again."  
  
"Ooo!" Gir declared, giggling like a little kid, which he was the equivilant of.  
  
"Don't start Gir." Zib pulled on his shirt, having some difficulty getting his large head through the collar, and sat down to start on his pants. Dressing and undressing himself were fairly recent habits for him, after Zim finally got sick of doing it and taught him how. He looked over at Gir, then up at Cten, confusedly,  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Gir thinks me and Poe are dating." she said, grinning slightly as she cleaned Gir's antennae. "We keep telling him we're just friends, but you try explaining to this little guy."  
  
"Dating?" He looked at her with the same confusion.  
  
"He thinks we're in love." she said gently.  
  
"Ooooooh." Zib giggled slightly, managing to finally yank his pants up, and put on his coat, looking up at her, "Are you?" She blushed slightly, standing up from drying Gir off.  
  
"No, we're just best friends, that's all."  
  
"Lookit Mini-Master, she all red again!" Gir pointed to Cten's face. Zib giggled louder, covering his mouth,  
  
"Why are your cheeks all red-like, Ms. Cten?" he wondered, mostly innocently.  
  
"…because they are." she replied, still blushing but now smiling somewhat. "Ooh okay okay. I like Poe, I like him a lot." She leant down and tickled Zib's tummy, "But you tell him that 'n I won't make you pancakes for a month!" Zib squeeked and burst out laughing, falling onto his back,  
  
"Aw, why not?" He squirmed, managing to get the words out between fits of giggles. She stopped tickling him and scooped him into her arms.  
  
"Because, if I ever tell him, I wanna be the one to say it. Okay?"  
  
"Oo-kay," His giggles died down, and he relaxed, snuggling against her and rubbing at his eyes beneath his glasses, "I promise I won't tell."  
  
"Thanks Zib." she nuzzled her head against his gently, "You know, I really love being around you two guys," she held Zib up with one hand and led Gir out of the room by the hand, "Yer just… so fun to be with."  
  
"Aw, I like you too!" Gir squeaked, nuzzling her hand with his head. Zib scrunched his shoulders up and nodded, the last of his giggles dying down,  
  
"I like you too, Ms. Cten. Sometimes…" He looked around, making sure Zim was out of sight, "You're more like a Mom than Mom."  
  
"Aw sweetie, your Mom just isn't the Mom type... but he tries, it doesn't show, but he does." she led the two into the lounge, Gir letting go of her hand and sitting on the couch.   
  
"I guess…" Zib looked at the front door, then up at her somewhat sadly, "I guess you're gonna go now?"  
  
"Yeah, I gotta go and find out where I'm gonna live." she set Zib on the couch, "But if you ever wanna see me, just ask your Mom to call me." she smiled at the two, "'N I'll come over." Zib smiled,  
  
"I will! Bye, Ms. Cten!" He sat back against the couch and waved at her.  
  
"Bye bye Zib, bye bye Gir." she gave them a small wave before putting her wig, contacts and activating her clothes disguise. "See you two around, and try to keep out of trouble."  
  
"Who… us?" Gir looked all innocent 'n angelic like.  
  
"Heh, yes Gir. Bye guys." with that she opened the door and headed out, closing it behind her, but then opening it quickly for Beka to hurry out after her.  
  
Poe was still by his tree, but he was sitting on the ground and holding one of his feet painfully, having kicked something too hard, or maybe it kicked back, who knew. Eventually Cten arrived, Beka in her feline disguise following her.  
  
"Sorry I'm late Poe, had to bathe Gir 'n Zib after breakfast." Poe looked up from holding his poor foot,  
  
"Cten!" He stood up quickly and winced, stumbling slightly, the various Poe-boot-shape imprints on all nearby stationary items telling the story of an incredibly grumpy Irken, "It's alright. I have bad news anyway."  
  
"I can see that…" she glanced at the shoe prints everywhere.  
  
"I ran into Dib earlier. He wasn't the one that set your base on fire," He sighed, "He showed me a photo. It was Gor." Cten blinked,  
  
"…Gor? Oh… oh no…" she glanced over her shoulder. Beka made a hissing sound. Poe rubbed his forehead with his fist,  
  
"Dib had been there because he was checking some Bigfoot traps, or something, and saw him by the house with a flamethrower." He sighed again and shook his head, the stress and guilt evident on his face, "I'm sorry, Cten, this is all my fault…"  
  
"No, no it isn't your fault at all Poe." Cten sighed, and ran a hand through her blond wig. "I… I met Gor a few weeks ago… he was pretty livid about me 'stealing' his slave and he said he'd get me, I said I wasn't afraid of him." she sighed, "Sure showed me, but don't blame yourself, okay?"  
  
"I should've known he'd do something like this, though. I mean, what if you hadn't been able to get out of the base?" He shook his head furiously, "He's not going to get away with this…"  
  
"Poe, I got out of the base, that's what's important…" Cten took his hand into hers, stroaking it gently. "I've never met a robot like him, but I know we can deal with it somehow, okay?" Poe blinked and looked up at her hand, then seemed to finally relax, nodding slightly,  
  
"I hope so,"  
  
"Good. Now you've calmed down, let's go search my base for my Voot Cruiser." she smiled, letting go of his hand. Poe nodded again and dropped his hand to this side, before sliding them both into his pockets. He started in the direction of her base, still being quiet and looking somewhat angsty, but that wasn't exactly unusual for him.  
  
She followed along after him, glancing at any shadowed area they'd come across. Having her memory jolted of her meeting with Gor, made her feel very nervous and worried. Eventually the three arrived at the charred remains that was once her base. She sighed, tears beginning to brim at her eyes as she saw the destruction. Poe looked over at her and frowned, setting his hand on her shoulder again, albiet this time it was on the shoulder furththest away from him.  
  
"Voot Cruisers are pretty tough, it's gotta be in here somewhere, right?"  
  
"I hope so," she said gently. Beka was already scanning through the wrecks, she pulled out what looked similar to the remains of a painting, and tossed it aside and kept searching. Looking at the ruins he couldn't help but feel guilty, and he shook his head slowly. Poe let his arm rest against her back and sighed,  
  
"Any luck, Beka?"   
  
"None yet sir Poe." Beka replied, throwing large parts of what used to be the base over her shoulder. Cten shuddered as she saw what was once her bed tossed to the side.  
  
"I doubt my experiments survived either." she muttered, leaning against Poe. Poe glanced down at her and hugged her slightly,  
  
"Well, like you said, everyone's okay, and that's what matters the most." He smiled slightly though he didn't seem too sure himself.  
  
"I was so close though." she said, wrapping her arm around him slowly. "I had almost, almost made something that could make us be in water without suffering effects and without the paste too." He frowned and added his other arm to the hug, holding her to him,  
  
"You still have what you learned, at least, right?"  
  
"I guess you're right." she looked up at him and smiles slightly, "Thanks Poe." He smiled back,  
  
"It's alright. I'm sure you'll be able to get your base and experiments back up and running in no time."  
  
"Yeah, but thanks for being here, that's all." she leant up and kissed him on the cheek, "Means a lot." He blinked in surprise, cheeks turning an odd shade of red, and his smile became somewhat shakey,  
  
"It's… my pleasure."  
  
"Ma'am! Sir!" Beka ran up to the two, jumping up and down on the spot hysterically, not taking note of the two hugging each other or Poe's blushing. "I found the Voot Cruiser!" Poe looked up quickly,  
  
"Really? What shape is it in?" he asked, his shyness making him eager to change topics.  
  
"A bit burnt, but it's intact! Come and see!" she grabbed Cten by the hand and pulled her away from Poe towards the mess, the two eventually stopping. Beka pointed down, an sure enough, there was the Voot Cruiser.  
  
"Oh... oh wow! It DID survive!" Cten squeed happily at the sight of the Cruiser. Poe followed them, smiling widely when he saw the Cruiser.  
  
"See, what'd I tell you? I knew everything'd be alright." Cten lept down onto it and opened it up, climbing inside.  
  
"This is great!" she said from inside the Cruiser, "We can make a new base somewhere else, and then Beka can finally fix that guidance thing in your pod so Gor can't follow you anymore!" Poe sat down on the edge of the crater the Cruiser was in,  
  
"That would be nice," he agreed, "I hope it would stop him, at least." He muttered, more to himself than anyone else.  
  
"It wouldn't stop him hunting you, but at least he wouldn't know where you are 24/7." Cten said, as she searched for a new Base creator.  
  
"True.. And I'm still not going to let him get away for what he did." Poe glared into space, using an anger-tainted tone he rarely spoke with.  
  
"Oo." Beka said, impressed by the tone Poe used. Poe had inherited his father's temperment, usually quite cool-headed, but make him angry - well, jeeze, you don't even want to think about that. He shook his head and peered down into the Cruiser,  
  
"Find another base thingee?"  
  
"Affirmative!" Cten held it up above her head, then gestued to Poe to join her. "C'mon Poe, best find another place for our base."  
  
"Heh, alright." Something about the last sentance made him grin, and he slid down into the Cruiser, things just a bit cramped as it was only intended for one Irken. Beka leapt in after them, standing behind the two. The Cruiser closed, and Cten started it up and it hovered up into the air.  
  
"All right, any idea where we can re-base?" Cten asked.  
  
"I'm not sure, much further out into the country and things could get inconvienient." He peered out the window, being slightly scrunched up against it, and shrugged, "Maybe you should ask Zim? I would think he'd know the geography better since he's been here the longest.."  
  
"Ah, good point..." she hit a button, making the Cruiser disguised as a cloud, and sped over towards Zim's base. "Methinks it'd be best if you waited in the Cruiser Poe, no need Zim getting upity if he finds out we're now living together."  
  
"Heh, good idea." No need to make someone else angry, and knowing Zim's destructive streak who knew how he'd react. "I guess he's going to find out eventually, though.."  
  
"Huh boy... shudder to imagine." Cten came to a stop above Zim's base, and scooted to the side. "Behave guys, no messing about."  
  
"I'll be good." He grinned slightly and looked down at the base. Zim, meanwhile, had finished tinkering and was watching something on the couch with Zib and Gir, trying to understand the appeal of watching humans complain about their problems with other humans, to other humans. Then, there was a knock at the door. Gir looked to the door, and before Zim could say anything - he'd zipped up his doggy disguse on.  
  
"Eh?" Zim got up and wandered over to the door, a monitor dropping down and revealing Cten waiting at the door. He opened it up, "What is it, solider?"  
  
"Zim, I told you previously about my base being destroyed, well luckily my Cruiser survived." Cten knew that with Zim, she had to get to the point, and quickly. "I was wondering if you had any idea where a good relocation would be for my base."  
  
"Hmmmm," He pondered, "Since the country didn't work out, I suppose you could always try the city, though I personally could not stand being so close to so many stinking human filth-lairs."  
  
"I can manage, Zim." she replied, "It'd be easier for my trips to Skool as well, and when you need me here." Zim nodded curtly,  
  
"Is there anything else you require of my AMAZING intellect?"  
  
"Just.. any idea where it'd be a good place to make a base. Near enough, yet not to gather a lot of attention." Zim thought for a moment,  
  
"You could always make it on top of one of those hugely tall human buildings. I'm sure no one'd notice," he suggested, missing the rather obvious point of just how they'd get up and down, "Or.. I thought I saw some old abandoned lots when I went out on that disgusting excursion with Gir. Try one of those?"  
  
"Oohhh... good idea..." she nodded, "Thanks Zim." she then realised Zib was waving at her, she gave him a quick wave back. Zib grinned widely when he was noticed, and Zim nodded again.  
  
"I'm glad to assist, afterall, few are equipped with a brain and.. smartness such as Zim possesses!" She nodded, smiling. She knew how to treat Zim to make him feel great, she cared too much to hurt him.  
  
"And I am always envious of your brain Zim."  
  
"As all should be!" He grinned proudly. Zib giggled quietly from the couch, muffling it with his cuff-covered gloves.  
  
"We're green with jealousy, Zim." Cten grinned at her own small but lame joke.  
  
"Nyahah, yes, I suppose you would be, wouldn't you? But then, green people are the only ones worth talking to." He scowled slightly, "Except that Reject, who isn't really green anyway, more of a minty shade."  
  
"Well, the Reject-" she had learnt to call Poe the 'Reject' when around Zim, "-doesn't appreciate your greatness as much as he should."  
  
"Of course not, he's an uneducated.. smelly thing!" He waved his claws in dismissal. "He has a distinct stink, and--" He scowled suddenly, antennae twitching.  
  
"And I just saw him walking past here earlier, I must add." Cten claimed quickly, then looked down the street. "I dear say Zim, you should getting your disguise for it seems door knockers are approaching, and with that, I bid you good day. Bye!" with that she quickly hurried off.  
  
Zim watched her leave quickly with a raised eyelid, somewhat critically, before remembering her warning and quickly ducking back into the door. Poe watched her rush away from the base curiously, from the saftey of the Voot Cruiser. Soon she was besides him again,  
  
"I forget how well equpit Zim is with his antennae... he almost picked up your 'smell'." she said, glancing down at the base. Poe blinked curiously,  
  
"But I'm up here.. the wind would've had to have been moving in a really weird direction for him to get that. Unless, uh.."  
  
"Unless?"  
  
"Unless it's on you." He turned slightly red again and scratched the side of his head, looking away. She blinked, then blushed again realising what he meant.  
  
"Oh... OH I see.... uhrm... probably.. yeah..." she put her hand to her neck, "Silly me.."  
  
"Maybe we should get out of here before he decides to investigate." Poe looked down at the base, before coughing, looking around for another subject, "So, uh, what'd he suggest?"  
  
"There's some vacant blocks he said..." she replied, coughing and her blush fading. "So we should look around for them."  
  
"Oh, good idea." He stared out the window intently, trying to seem as though he scanning for said empty blocks, "I think I might've seen some of those when I was out wandering around, but most of them were near the end of the city my old base was at."  
  
"I'm sure there's others near by..." Cten started the Cuirser, and it began scanning the area for vacant blocks. Poe made a dedicated effort to remember,  
  
"I thought I saw one a few blocks from the park. There were some other houses nearby, so it wouldn't look too odd."  
  
"Good idea." She turned sharply and soon they were over the park, and there was a vacant lot.  
  
"Yeah, that's it.. It's kind of decrepit, but I guess that's not too important." It looked like it use to be an old playground, with a well-worn, grass covered basketball court at one end, the rest overgrown with weeds, an a 'For Sale' sign jutting out of the ground.  
  
"Ooo Poe, let's buy it." she put on a sugary-sweet voice, sounding like a newly wed. "We can do so much and raise a family! Tee-hee!" Poe snickered slightly,  
  
"Sure, dearest. Let me see if I can afford it." He pulled some lint out of his pockets. "Oh, look, just enough!"  
  
"Oh darling it'll be perfect once we get the rose bed put in!" she giggled, "I think we should pose as a couple though, and using our Irken technology hypnotise the client into giving it to us, no need to raise alarm that a house suddenly grew on a land that's already for sale."  
  
"Heh, good idea. Though sometimes I really have to wonder if they'd notice." He leaned down, narrowing his eyes at the For Sale sign through the window, "I think there's a phone number on the sign.. Maybe we should land the Cruiser in some of that tall grass back there before someone notices us."  
  
"Good idea." she moved the Cruiser over, making the disguise go from a cloud to a bush, and had it land. Poe ducked out of the cruiser and looked around,  
  
"I think this should be big enough, providing there aren't any subways beneath it, unless the Base thingee's smart enough to dig around them."  
  
"I think it's smart enough to do that." Cten climbed out, and then handed Poe a ring, "Wear this, and I can alter our disgusies to make us look older."  
  
"Huh, alright," He stuffed the ring onto one of his claws with a bit of difficulty, wiggling the fingers of the hand it was on to get use to it.  
  
"All right.... any choice you want?" she pulled out what looked like a remote, and handed him a hand-mirror as she put her own ring on.  
  
"Hm.. Well, I don't wanna look too old. Business casual maybe?"  
  
"All righty!" she flipped with the switch, and even if Poe's disguise now looked like a normal human male, she couldn't really adjust it to make it loose the long black hair, now tied back. "Tell me what you think."  
  
"Hm.." Poe looked into the mirror, raising his eyelids to make his new eyebrows waggle, "I like it!" He looked over the mirror at her, "What about your disguise?"  
  
"Well then." she fiddled with the disguise control, and soon enough she looked like an average blonde haired yong lady, the rings they wore on their fingers showing through the disguise as wedding rings now.   
  
"So, what'd you think of me now, honey?" she grinned teasingly. Poe grinned widely, his teeth still a bit pointy despite his guise,  
  
"Why, you're simply ravishing," he teased back. Cten laughed, waving one hand absently in the air,  
  
"Oh you're too much!" she then returned to 'serious' mode, if you can call this story serious. "Now, to make the phone call…" she had her communicator-verbal only come out, the human version seemed to pull a mobile out. She entered the number and waited, tapping one foot.  
  
"Hello?" The guy on the other end of the line greeted curiously, "Is this about the lot?" He seemed desperately eager, "I haven't been able to get rid of that thing for months!"  
  
"Yes, yes in fact it is about the lot..." she kicked at a spider that was crawling over her foot, "I was wondering when myself and my husband could come and talk to you about it."  
  
"Oh, any time! Heck, I'll be over right now if you need!" Poe was meanwhile poking around in the tall grass, hand stuffed in his pockets, and generally being aimless.  
  
"Oh that'd be wonderful!" she looked over at Poe, who happened to glance at her and she gave him a thumbs up. "See you soon then?"  
  
"Yeah!" He hung up quickly. Poe grinned slightly, and it wasn't long before a car pulled up, a moderately well-dressed guy stepping out. He raised his eyebrow slightly when he noticed their height, or lackthereof, but shrugged it off; a customer was a customer.  
  
"The asking price is $6k, but I'm willing to negotiate.."  
  
Cten looked around the lot, $65k for this? No wonder he wasn't getting any calls over it... she then looked at him and smiled innocently. We have a view of the wall to the side of them, and their shadows as Cten's pod opens up and an arm comes out, the man screams as the arm, which has some kind of machine on it's end clamps over his head, and the seaming halted. The arm came off and vanished back into her pod, now the man had some bizzare Irken symbol on his forehead. She looked over to Poe,  
  
"Take over Poe, _dear_." she smirked. Poe winced slightly, then approached the man, trying to figure out just what to do. Acting wasn't really his forte.  
  
"Well, um.. I believe our business here is done.. We'll, uh, have our people call your people sometime. Now, go home, relax and forget everything that had to do with this lot, alright?" The man didn't even nod, just standing there, drooling slightly, before he walked mechanically back to his car, getting in, and driving off straight ahead, several blocks down, into a wall, backing up and repeating the process several times. Cten laughed slightly,  
  
"Aw I love humans, they're so easily manipulated!" she said, clasping her hands together. She looked over to Poe, "Well, now we have to make a house to fit in with the rest of these ones." she gave a small glance at the surrounding homes.  
  
"Yeah.. It shouldn't be that hard." He looked around at the homes nearby, mostly remnants from when the part of the city they were in use to be the suburbs, before expansion took place; the lot they'd bought probably use to be the neighborhood park. "We could just mix and match things from the other houses, they all look the same to me, anyway."  
  
"Hyeah really..." she pulled the Base Creator out and began scribbling, while sat on an old rusted petrol can. "They put no brains into the creation of their bases... anyone could just waltz in.."  
  
"People _do_ just waltz in, from what I've seen, and they _welcome_ them," Poe shook his head, folding his arms and leaning back against the utlitarian, vine-covered chainlink fence that surrounded the property, causing the fence to jangle, "Humans seem so reliant on others.. I guess they're more social than a species like us Irkens could understand." Cten nodded in responce, then held out the Base Creator to Poe,  
  
"So what do you think? Think it suits the area?" He leaned forward to look at it,  
  
"Looks fine to me." Maybe the lines were a bit less straight than on most of the houses, and who knows what colour it'd actually come out as, but it was close enough.  
  
"Brilliant." she walked to the middle of the lot, and closed up the Base Creator. She rammed it into the ground, and backed away as the ground began to shake.  
  
Poe held onto the fence for support, wincing as the shaking and sprouting of architecture set off car alarms and even an air-raid siren in the distance, but by the grace of some deity the fact an orange, two-story, suburban home was ascending from the ground went relatively unnoticed. Soon the howling of dogs and car sirens came to a halt, and Cten looked up at the orange house and grinned.  
  
"I like it..." the door opened, and Beka, in her cat disguise walked out.  
  
"Brilliant house Ma'am and Sir!"  
  
"Hey, congradulate her, I didn't do anything but watch." He looked up at the house, a satelite dish jutting out of the chimney, windows red-edged and slightly warped. "It's a bit.. bright, but I like it too."  
  
"If I could choose colour, I would.." she shrugged and turned to Poe. "So, wanna look abouts our new abode?"  
  
"Sure. If it's anything like the other bases, it ought to prove interesting.." He started down the walkway and through the door that had 'Employee Exit' written on it, opening it up to reveal the highly purple living room.  
  
"Ow my eyes!" Cten put her hands to her eyes, the walls were purple, the floor was yellow… Poe winced as well,  
  
"I think this one might require a bit of redecoration.." The couch was pink with black poka-dots, and the TV was blue, and ridiculously large. The stairs were twisted and malformed, yet somehow structurally sound. The kitchen.. well, that was just scary.  
  
"Right now.... we'll just have to cope for now until we find the colour controls..." she whipped out a pair of black sunglasses and put them on, they magically held on how Zib's glasses held onto his head. Poe settled for squinting, wandering into the kitchen warily.  
  
"Going to tell Zim where your new base is located?"  
  
"Meh, I'll have to probably..." she stared at the big TV as she walked past it, and spied a kitty scratch post the colour of mud in the corner. Poe sat down on the retinal-abusing couch.  
  
"You could always let him figure it out for himself, not like he can't use a guidance chip thingee to locate it within about.. oh, 2 seconds."  
  
"Guess you're right.... plus we're not that far from him anyways." she sat down on a lime green bean bag, and made her disguise vanish, her normal Irken self visible again. Poe started to fiddle with his ring-dash-image inducer, fiddling with the settings,  
  
"Uh, how do I turn this thing off?"   
  
"Oh, sorry." she pointed to a button on her ring, which looked like a diamond. "You hit that."  
  
"Oh, duh." Poe noticed the rock and hit it, the image frizzling out, returning him to himself, although he was still disguised. He took off his contacts and wig, "It'll be nice not to have to worry about these anymore.. though I'm not sure if I want my antennae dangling out in the open, disguised or not."  
  
"Totally up to you, Poe." Cten replied, Beka hopping up and laying above her on the beanbag. "...so now what do we do?"  
  
"Good question." He sighed, slumping back against the couch arm, "We could always wait around for Zim to bother us, or Dib, whichever comes first."  
  
"Ah the life of a maid and a reject when there's no one else around." she muttered, her finger running over her leg as Beka yawned and curled up.  
  
"Oh, yeah. Thrill a minute." He folded his ankle over his knee and drummed his claws, "I suppose it's better than being a servent or a fugitive, eh?"  
  
"Oh yeah, very much so..." she replied, "No one calling up in the middle of the night for snacks or wanting me to locate his laser..." she paused, "Heck I miss it for some weird reason."  
  
"Heh, it was a job.. Can't say I really miss my former life, but at the very least it wasn't boring."  
  
"I'd say so!" she smirked at him, "But still... we're being like a fugitive. You from Gor, me from Zim..." she sighed. "Don't know how to deal with either of them."  
  
"Yeah." He sighed, "At least the patrollers couldn't track me as well. I don't think Zim's much of a threat at least.. well, so far."  
  
"Wonder what we'd have to put up with if he found out I've given you shelter..." she tilted her head to the side, "Probably a lot of lecturing, and then he probably won't let me see Zib again..." Poe shook his head,  
  
"I wish I knew why he hated me so much. I guess we'll just have to be careful around him."  
  
"He hates you, because he was trained to hate Rejects, that's why." she said, almost in a snappy tone.  
  
"I'd swear he had a personal vendetta against me sometimes, though. I guess the fact I scare Zib doesn't help, not that I'd pick Zim as the protective type.."  
  
"He is, in his own way... but if given half the chance, he'd show Zib he really does care about him. Dunno when one of those chances would crop up, but still."  
  
[To be continued!]


	5. Chapter 6

The Battle of Gor  
Epic Two  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Six  
  
And at this little conversation note, we have a scene change! Zim's little base comes into view, but we open on the base. All is quiet and still, until a door slides open and Zib enters. By the way he's acting, he's somewhere he shouldn't be, and sneaks into the room just as the door slides shut behind him.  
  
Zib snickered evilly to himself, looking back and forth before grinning up at the lab. Zim had left the door unlocked, and had foolishly left Zib to his own devices. Zib wandered through the lab, careful not to touch anything, until he came upon a curious looking device, labled in Irken. He frowned; Mom hadn't bothered to teach him much of that, so he didn't have a clue what it was. It looked like some sort of laser, aimed at a red X on the floor. Zib didn't notice the X and wandered towards the laser, stepping on the X in the process and thusly, right into the laser's target zone.  
  
His wandering claw felt a control panal, but seeing how there wasn't much light - Zib began to feel his claw over the buttons, hoping one of them was the light. He felt a switch, and flipped it. Wrong switch, young Zib. The laser suddenly sparked to life, and an electrical current shot out towards what to it, the target which it had aquired...  
  
Zib yelped as he was struck, and suddenly found himself changing. His hair receded until he only had the two bent-backwards antennae, his glasses fell off, eyes enlargened and became sickeningly cute; lo and behold, he'd regressed back into being a baby… hatchling… smeet, or whatever. Zim, meanwhile, had noticed Zib had gone missing and recalled his open lab door with some panic, and he came running in, looking around,  
  
"Zib?!" Zib blinked a few times, trying to focus on any object nearby, but now without his glasses he was now, pretty much blind as a bat. This scared him a lot, and not knowing where his Mom was, or if he'd get into big trouble for doing this, he did the best thing a spawn thingie like him could do in a situation like this. He burst into tears and clung to his clothes, which were now far too big for him, since he was now surrounded in the jacket, pants, boots, gloves and shirt. Zim's antennae picked up the sound, and he raced toward it on his spider legs, showing uncharacteristic panic.  
  
"Zib!" He noticed the Age-changing ray as he rounded a corner, and winced, "Zib, I hope you didn't-- ARGH!" He noticed the now infant spawn crawling around in his oversized clothes, and folded up his legs, and picked Zib up, scowling.  
  
"And I haven't invented the 'reverse' part of the laser yet!" Zib continued to cry pathetically, but trailed off and hiccuped slightly. Hearing his Mom's voice was somewhat comforting, but what he heard wasn't really what he wanted to hear, so he whined slightly and shivered, since now he was now naked.   
  
"Ehm…" Zim looked at the wailing Zib in mild confusion, not quite sure what to do, so he just held him and patted his back mechanically, "There, there, or… something." Gir, hearing the commotion wandered into the room,  
  
"Master is the walls melting again?" the little robot asked, before stopping and staring at the baby Zib. Hearing Gir, Zim turned to face the robot, glaring,  
  
"No, Gir, Zib seems to have found the age-manipulation ray because SOMEBODY did not close the door was locked after his Master!"  
  
"The Scary Monkey Show was onnnnn..." Gir whined in defence, folding his arms. Zib clung to Zim's shoulder and continued to hiccup, making slight gurgle-ish noises now and again, drooling on Zim's shoulder.  
  
"That's no excuse- EH! Stop leaking, Zib!" Zim held the infant away from him and made a face at his shoulder, shaking him slightly in an attempt to stop his hiccups. "This is just great. The care of infant spawn is not part of standard Invader training!" He muttered - well, with Zim, it was more like shouting - to himself.  
  
Being shook and yelled at usually wasn't the best proceedure to go about to halt hiccuping, especially with babies, as Zim found out as Zib burst into tears again and kicked his tiny legs frantically. Gir narrowed his eyes at Zib and put his hands where his ears would be.  
  
"Where's the mute button??"  
  
"How should I know?!" Zim stopped shaking Zib and instead held him awkwardly, flopping him over his shoulder, "COMPUTER!" He addressed the ceiling, "Give me all of the info you have on raising infants!"  
  
"Human or Irken?" Zim blinked, looking at Zib, and scowled.  
  
"…forget it." Zib sniveled as he clung to Zim's shoulder again, hiccuping as he did before. He'd managed to gain control of his mouth again and had stopped drooling, at least, but he was still cold and shivered against Zim.  
  
"Aw, doesn't Master know how anyone to help?" Gir tilted his head to the side, looking annoyed more and more each time Zib hiccuped.  
  
"Hm… ehm, well, Cten is a female, therefore she should be well versed in spawn management! Yes, of course!" Zim unfolded his communicator right away and stabbed in Cten's number.  
  
"Beans!" Gir declared happily, that he'd helped his Master out a little bit. Zib by now, was reaching out his little hand, and managed to grab a hold of one of Zim's antennae and yanked, _hard_.  
  
Meanwhile at the house that Cten and Poe built, both have fallen asleep?! Gee they really are a riot a minute! Cten snorts awake as her communicator suddenly buzzes to life, and sprouts from her pod in front of her.  
  
"Whua?"  
  
"AAAAAAAUUUGH!" Zim's voice screamed from the communicator, loudly enough to wake Poe from across the room. "THE PAIN! Release me at once, Zib!" Zim grimaced on Cten's monitor, Zib's tiny hand just offscreen, "There seems to be a problem that requires one of your expertise and, ehm, gender, solider." Zim grabbed the babyfied Zib and held him out on the monitor, for Cten to see. Her eyes widened as the baby Zib stared blankly at the communicator, since to him it was just a blur of colours and shapes. He hiccuped again and reached out to grab the communicator, but Zim pulled him away in time.  
  
"…what on Irk happened, Zim?" Cten finally asked after a moment or so of shocked silence. Poe blinked in curiousity,  
  
"Why, what happ-" He erked and quickly slapped his claws over his mouth, realizing Zim could probably hear him. Zim's antennae twitched and he scowled curiously again, but his suspicion was interrupted by Zib suddenly pulling on his cheek.  
  
"OW! He snuck into my lab and activated my age manipulation laser somehow!"  
  
"Oh… dear." Cten couldn't help but smirk slightly as Zib's jumble of "Ma-Ma's" that could be heard from offscreen. "So, I guess I better be there as quickly as possible before he causes you more pain huh?" she asked.  
  
"Yes! Immediately! I--" Zim caught himself as he realized he was about to admit ignorance, then recovered quickly, "I haven't assigned you duty in a while. Yes!" Nevermind that he'd just had Cten babysit Zib for a full night.  
  
"Right then, Zim." she gave him a small salute, "Be there in a little while." One of Zib's flailings deactivated the communicator, which Zim quickly refolded before any more damage could be done to it. Poe looked lost,  
  
"What was his problem?"  
  
"Seems Zib got shot with Zim's age manipulation laster," she hopped off the bean bag, "And has reverted to the baby hood he never had."  
  
"So he's a baby now?" Poe made an 'ew' face and sat up. "I guess I'll, uh, hold down the fort here while you go teach Zim how to be a Mommy."  
  
"Yup, have fun!" she patted him on the head before activating her disguise on again. Beka sat up and watched her head to the door. Poe mock-scowled as he was patted.  
  
"Do I stay here, Ma'am?"  
  
"Well, yeah. No reason to let Poe get lonely."  
  
"Have fun, Cten. Or something." Poe waved,  
  
"I'll try." with that she headed out the door. Soon she was near Zim's base, and already she could hear Zib's high-pitched wailing from inside. She arrived at the door, and figuring Zim won't be able to hear much of anything, let herself in. Zim, meanwhile, was trying to hold Zib close enough that he didn't burst into tears, yet far away enough that he didn't rip off his flesh, and wasn't having much luck.  
  
"I _knew_ babies were horrible creatures of sheer… horror!" Cten managed to control laughing at the situation as she saw the two, Zib still reaching out with his tiny hands for his Mom, wailing and hiccuping every now and again. She walked up and tapped Zim on the shoulder, since he had his back to her since she entered.  
  
"Huh? Oh, yes, take him!" Zim turned and stuffed Zib into Cten's arm, quickly wiping off his drool-coated shoulder with his glove sleeve. "Disgusting, leaky things!" Cten stepped back in surprise as Zib was thrust into her arms, but she managed to hold him properly at least, better then Zim was. Zib hiccuped again, made a few more 'weh' sounds but quietened down a little. She blinked a few times, looking at Zim.   
  
"So tell me again why this happened?"  
  
"Gir neglected to close the door to my lab, and I had to retrieve a highly important component for my latest ingenius device! I HAD left Zib on the couch in front of some stupid human TV show, but when I got out of equipment storage, he was gone! I found him by the age-manipulation ray, he must have touched something. Like I always tell him not to!" Zim huffed, finally finishing.  
  
"I see." she mumbled slightly, "And I take you have no reverse ray?" Zib looked around, tears still rolling down his face as he strained to work out where he was at least.  
  
"No. The ray wasn't completed yet; that's the part I'm still working on." He looked at the sobbing Zib and frowned slightly, before scowling, "The effect SHOULD wear off after a while, but it could take hours, or days!"  
  
"Ohh." Cten picked up what used to be Zib's shirt. "Well what do you need me for then?" she then laid Zib on the ground and wrapped him up in the shirt snuggly and picked him up again.  
  
"I… ehm. Care of hatchlings is not part of my VAST repitore of skills." He grumbled, admitting finally, and picked up Zib's glasses, handing them to her despite the fact they were probably far too large for him now. She took the glasses, blinked then held the pair above Zib's eyes. Zib blinked a few times as things came into focus, then giggled happily as he could finally see, and looked from Cten to Zim.  
  
"I see… so you want me to give you the basic ins and outs?"  
  
"Eh, I suppose," He sniffed indignantly, looking rather miffed at revealing his ignorance, then blinked, "Well, at least he stopped leaking."  
  
"Ma-ma." Zib said in a sleepy tone,  
  
"Well, ask me what you want to know then." she shifted Zib from one arm to the other, who was slowly falling asleep.  
  
"I noticed he seems to have lost his teeth. How is he suppose to eat properly without any teeth?!"  
  
"Ah, well." she moved her finger to his mouth, in reaction to something he probably got from Dib, sucked on her finger hungrily. "If you want to feed him now, it'd have to be soft foods that he can handle, no hard stuff."  
  
"Hm… I have heard… horrible things about hatchlings…" He eyed Zib warily, "That… they cannot control their most BASIC bodily functions? Is this true?" Zim looked slightly fearful.  
  
"Sadly yes." Cten nodded. "Another reason why I wrapped him up so we don't get any… uh, mess anywhere. That, and he was cold."  
  
"That's disgusting! I'm not going to handle something that might leave dookie on me!" He cringed and shielded his face, lest Zib suddenly pounce on him and do something horrible like that. Cten rolled her eyes,  
  
"Zim, the Nurses had to put up with it when you were little, Zib's your… spawn thingie, I think you should at least do that for him… uh, sorry but it's true." she smiled somewhat meekly, while Zib continued to suck on her finger making happy sounds now and again.  
  
"What? Impossible! Zim was always a creature of maturity and sophsitication!" He did look a little guilty though, frowning momentarily before his face set back into his usual scowl, "But very well, I will hold Zib DESPITE the threat it poses to my germ-free cleanliness!"  
  
"Then I'd have to show you what to do when… that incident occours now, won't I?"  
  
"Yes." Zim narrowed his eyes at the thought, then took Zib with about as much care as he'd shown when he gave him to Cten, which of course woke Zib up, distraught that the finger he'd had was gone.  
  
"What? What'd I do?!" Zim looked around, panicked as Zib started crying again.  
  
"Zim dear, you have to know that you have to treat Zib very gentle-like now." she walked up to him and replaced his hands, so he was at least holding Zib properly, "You have to support his head there... behind there... and this." she grabbed his finger and stuck it into Zib's mouth, which automatically ceased the crying.  
  
"Meh?" Zim blinked blankly and did as he was directed, watching Zib suckle his claw in slight confusion, "Why on Irk did THAT calm him down?"  
  
"It just helps to calm human babies down, as I've observed." she replied, "Seems since the female human mothers give milk though… uh, somewhere and the feeling that they're suckling their Mom helps them to relax." she wasn't sure if she got that right, "Heck it's either have him suckle your finger or have him crying." Zib managed to get a small claw free and grabbed onto Zim's finger as he continued to suck it happily. Zim nodded slightly and stared down at Zib for a while, the faintest hint of a smile(!!) curling up the corner of his lip. He sat down on something convinient.  
  
"I guess this isn't _too_ bad…"  
  
"Aww." Cten said more to herself, "So, moving right along." she sat down in front of him on the floor, "When he does cry, it probably means he's either hungry, gassy or wet." she folded her arms over her knees, leaning her head against them.  
  
"…what do I do if he's one of the second or third?" Zim made a face, looking down at her.  
  
"Gassy means you have to burp him." she then grabbed Gir who had just been walking past.  
  
"Wha?" the little robot asked,  
  
"Burping him is easy," she then leant Gir onto her shoulder, "You hold him like this," Gir just looked more confused then usual that he was being used as an aid in this sort of thing, but shrugged it off. "And rub, and pet his back as so." she demonstrated for a while, then stopped. Gir complied by letting out a burp. "…thanks for that Gir." she set him down.  
  
"Alright… what if he makes a mess?" Zim wrinkled the area of his nonexistant nose slightly, but didn't seem as adament about not having anything to do with Zib, who by now was fast asleep, but still making the usual suckling sound against Zim's finger.  
  
"If he messes himself," What followed next is best left to the view point of just Zim, Gir and Cten as she proceeded to explain to him, using Gir as the aid again, what to do in such an event that Zib messes himself. Both number one, and number two. At the end of the explenation, Gir's sat to the side in a diaper, giggling to himself. He then proceeded to stand up and dance the 'Ally McBeal Baby' dance while chanting 'Ooga chugga'. Zim looked greener than usual at the thought, but he still held onto Zib.  
  
"Blech… Well, an Invader such as myself must be able to accept all challenges… no matter how disgusting." Some extremely well-buried maternal instincts finally fought their way to the surface, and he unconciously started to rock Zib slightly. Little Zib made a happy 'mm' sound and snuggled against Zim, yawned, allowing Zim to free his finger for a moment.  
  
"Yeah, the things the Nurses back at the Nest put up with, huh Zim?" Zim flicked off his well-moistened glove finger, looking over at Cten as though snapped out of a trance,  
  
"Huh? Oh, yes, I suppose I have a new respect for them." He sounded a bit distracted, and went back to staring at his offspring with what one might swear was a hint of fondness. "He's kinda cute when he's like this…"  
  
"Yeah… shame they gotta grow up huh? Or at least, in this case, have the beam wear off." she smiled, "Nice to see you got a small hint of maternal instincts in you Zim."  
  
"Yeah… I mean-- what? I do not!" He said quickly, "Zim is without a trace of mercy or compassion!" His hand free now, he supported the back of Zib's head with it, totally contradicting his words.  
  
"Whatever you say Zim, you're the Mom." Cten replied gently, last thing she wanted was Zib being woken up by Zim's voice.  
  
"Exactly," He huffed and went back to cradling Zib, "Is there anything else? Zib was always putting things in his mouth when he was littler.." He shuddered, "Things covered in germs!"  
  
"Well, now you have to make sure he doesn't eat anything he's not supposed to. My best bet is getting like a small play area for him set up, with mesh walls so he can't get out and hurt himself." she said, remembering seeing one of them on TV at some point.  
  
"Hm… COMPUTER!" He shouted, forgetting about the sleeping spawn, "Replicate a human child prison!" The computer complied, and after some whirring and clanking of machinery, a large pen-crib-thing dropped down from the ceiling, reddish-purple with the Irken logo on a circular plate suspended in middle of the meshing. A closer look would reveal why Zib remained asleep; Zim was covering his hair-antennae with his hand. Aww! Cten stared at the objects, as did Gir.  
  
"Aw Master, ya shouldn't have!" he declared.  
  
"It's not for you Gir, it's for Zib." Cten replied.  
  
"Aww, Zib gets all the good stuffs!" Gir pouted.  
  
"You're old enough to take care of yourself, Gir." Zim scowled at his robot, muttering, "Nevermind that you're a robot and should need no care at all…"  
  
"Can I have this?" Gir picked up a rattle he had found on the floor.  
  
"…fine Gir, have that." Cten didn't want to have Gir getting all upset again, the little robot squealed and ran off, shaking the rattle like a hyperactive child. Which he was, brain-wise. Zim winced at the sound and glared at Gir, but didn't yell again lest he wake up Zib. It gave him an idea, though,  
  
"Is he goingto need me to… eh… amuse him?"  
  
"Eh, now and again you might have to play with him Zim." she replied, looking at the still sleeping Zib, who moved slightly in Zim's arms but sitll didn't wake up.  
  
"Play?" He raised his eyelid, "What is this… play?" Cten blinked blankly.  
  
"…you're kidding."  
  
"Whatever it is it was never covered in Invader academy."  
  
"It's… you know…" she didn't really know how to explain this. "…man I never thought I'd be asked what that was… it's what, little kids do. Y'know, you've seen them! In the parks, with their parent persons!"  
  
"I thought that was conditioning for… um… whatever humans do when they mature!" He pondered this, "I suppose to a simpler species it might be amusing, though…"  
  
"I guess." she replied, "Some basics babies seem to adore is 'peek a boo', which consists of covering your eyes, and taking them off and saying 'peek a boo' or sometimes when having your eyes covered asking 'Where's Zib?' and when you take them off say 'There's Zib!'…" she trailed off, "Sounds weird I know."  
  
"I don't know. I'm afraid I might make his brain stupid if I… 'play' human games with him. Maybe I'll research to see if young Irkens have any equivillents…"   
  
"Maybe you're right." Cten said, "Well, it's all up to you Zim, you are the Mom after all." she stood up slowly, "So anything else?"  
  
"As far as I know, no." Zim looked back down at Zib, then up at Cten, "I… ehm… commend you on your… knowledege of… female-type skills, solider."  
  
"Glad to know I can be of assistance to you and Zib, Zim." she smiled, "And if there's anything else that crops up and you don't know what to do, and neither does the computer, just call."  
  
"You can rest assured I will," he mumbled, standing up and saluting her stiffly, before supporting Zib's head again. "Have you successfully relocated your base?"  
  
"Yes, and hopefully nothing ill will happen to it again."  
  
And just as Cten says this, meanwhile back at the base, well, more correctly across from he base in the shadows, a pair of red eyes flash to life.  
  
"Well, I suppose I should let you finish setting up. I believe I have amassed enough knowledge to sufficiently take care of Zib."  
  
"Once again, glad to be of service Zim." Cten flicked her ring, her disguise snapping on again, and Zim waved her off.  
  
[To be continued!]


	6. Chapter 7

The Battle of Gor  
Epic Two  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Seven  
  
At the base, out from the shadows steps Gor, and no more is he disguised either, nope-nope. He marches across the street, up past the fence and gate, and up to the door. He then knocks three times, very loudly at that. Poe blinked in surprise, having drifted asleep again.  
  
"Cten?" Who else could it be? He opened the door, looking around in slight confusion, then looked down, and went pale… well, paler. Gor looked up at Poe, then smiled at him in his usual evil demenor.  
  
"Well, glad to see you too, Slave…" he said almost gently. Poe bristled, his fear being replaced by anger as he remembered what Gor did, and he narrowed his eyes, lip twitching,  
  
"I'm not your slave anymore, Gor." Gor stared back at him, a hint of smug across his metalic features as he crossed his arms, in his hand, not his regular bull-whip anymore, but one similar and with spites jutting out of it.  
  
"Freedom, I see, has given you a sense of false independancy." his eyecams narrowed, flashing red. "It must come to an end, you do realise."  
  
"My _freedom_ isn't the thing that's going to be ending," Poe growled, baring his teeth, his anger giving him a new sense of confidence, "It's just as well you came here. I was going to hunt you down and make you pay for what you did to Cten's base!"  
  
"Oh, she survived did she? Hm, I didn't plan on that…" Gor put a hand to his chin, "That _does_ confuse things… and pardon, but I must have lint in my hearing system but did you say you were going to hunt _me_ down? Oh ho, Slave, you amuse me so. I don't know why I let you run off in the first place…" before Poe could say anything in defence, the robot pushed past him into the house, glancing at the surroundings.  
  
"Hrm, freedom hasn't changed your _taste_."  
  
"Wah-hey!" Poe stumbled as he was pushed aside, the robot being a good deal stronger than him afterall, but quickly moved to try and block him again, trying to make himself appear intimidating,  
  
"Get OUT! You're not doing anything to our base again!"  
  
"Oh I'm through with base destruction, Slave." Gor replied simply. "Right now I'm into personal destruction, and I must say, it does seem more _me_ then vandilism."  
  
"Personal desctuction?" Poe growled lowly, raising his fist, "If you so much as lay a claw on her…" Gor just smiles at Poe, before his feet egnite and he hovers in the air, above Poe.  
  
"Oh I'll lay more then just my claws on her, as well as you, Slave." he sadly shook his head while holding his whip in his hands, "I had so many hopes that you'd do as you're told… obviously I have to _tighten_ the choke chain." Poe was only getting angrier, easily manipulated by the robot's cool-headedness, and reached up, sliding his claws beneath his spike collar and ripping it off, flinging it at Gor in hopes one of the spikes would impale him. Gor very easily grabbed the collar in his hands, looked at it then down at Poe.  
  
"Oh Slave… that hurt so much… do you know how much this collar cost?" obviously by the tone of his voice it hadn't, but he seemed to very much enjoy pushing Poe's buttons. At this moment, Cten was arriving home but stopped and was listening outside the door, hearing Gor's voice her eyes widened somewhat.  
  
"What about Cten's base?! You destroyed all her hard work, just because you're a deficiant SIR unit!" He paused, then sneered, "You're worse than Gir."  
  
"You _dare_ to compare me to that brainless hunk of junk!?" Gor's eyes flashed black then red again, and he threw the collar away. "You should watch your tongue Slave before you find it ripped off and fed to a pig!"  
  
"I dare alright!" Poe smirked toothily as he managed to push a few of Gor's buttons as well, "You're not even as intelligent as the humans!"  
  
"My intelligence is _FAR_ superior to all the wrotten animals and humans living on this vile pile of dirt!" Gor whipped his whip around behind him, "Now are you going to apologise or am I to teach you a lesson or two?" Poe glared at him dangerously, narrowing his eyes until they were black slits,  
  
"_Never_." And with that, he spit at Gor's eyecam. Gor snarled and wiped at the spit in his eyecams, but not enough to get them out of his view.  
  
"VERY WELL!" he screamed, and now pay attention, this happens very quickly.  
  
Gor whips the whip around, and it's about unleash the very sharp and dangerous metal spikes to Poe - who know has his eyes shut preparing for the blow, when the door slams open. Cten - as we know has been listening in rushes in and just as the spikes come ripping down to cause damage to Poe - Cten actually blocks them with her own back as she pushes him away. This prooves fatal, as the spikes are stronger then they seem. They rip through her pak, sending metalic shards through the air, and through her body, possibly even through her pak so you can imagine the mess and mix of Irken petrol and her blood. Gor hovers back and wipes the spit finally from his eyes, and sees what he's done.  
  
"…damn, _missed_." Poe had closed his eyes and prepared to recieve the blow, as mentioned before hand, when he felt her run into him.  
  
"Wha- CTEN!" He yelped and held onto her shoulders, glancing over and wincing at the damage, "Oh Tallest… Cten?" He shook her, quickly getting ill and forgetting about Gor for the moment. Cten couldn't help but put her weight onto him now, her eyes slowly closing.  
  
"Told you…" she said quietly as her antennae lowered, some of her blood trickling at the corner of her mouth. "I told you… you were…" her eyes shut, "…my best friend…" with that she went quiet. Poe stared at her in disbelief, before closing his eyes and hugging her shoulders tightly. Gor held up his whip while this was happening, observing the blood and petrol on his whip.  
  
"And this was brand _new_…" he muttered.  
  
Gor's voice snapped him out of it, and he looked up, setting Cten down gently, if not mechanically. Poe stared at Gor silently, before lowering his head, narrowed eyes still focused on Gor. He had a different aura now; gone was the immature rage he had before, replaced by cool, tightly controlled hatred in his black eyes that was probably disturbing, even to the robot. He strode forward toward Gor, his coat swaying behind him, claws clenching into fists.  
  
Gor looked down at Poe, looking slightly surprised but then the surprised look overcome with pure malice and glee at the sight. He lowered himself so at least now, he was face to face with Poe. His eyecams narrowed, the evil burning behind them probably just as powerful as the aura Poe had, and it seemed this had been the moment he had been waiting for all this time. Not to get Poe back to be his Slave, but to at least get some entertainment from the Irken before he ends his life.  
  
There was a whirring, creaking sound as Poe's primarily dormat pak came to life, the first black segment of the wicked legs unfolding, unfurling outwards until they arched over his head. Poe usually wasn't strong enough to balance or hold them up, but his anger gave him slightly superhu-well, Irken strength. There was a chance Gor'd never even seen Poe's weaponized legs, as the last time he used them in front of someone was on Irk.  
  
The robot's eyes watched as the legs unfold, yes he had never seen them, but was that an impressed look on his face? Still, Gor didn't budge from his place. Either the evil streak in him was too powerful to be over shadowed by fear or any other kind of feeling in his body, either way, he just stood glaring at Poe. Could it be Gor had a transformation himself, but had never shown it either? We shall see.  
  
Poe's lip twitched into a slight snarl, and the lasers on the tips of the legs alighted with a snap, crackling and sending a few sparks off. Poe reared back suddenly and one of the legs shot forward, like a knife on pnunamic spring. Gor had the advantage of being a robot specialized to observe and react to changes in the environment quickly, but Poe had a temper inherited from a War General.  
  
Poe had the advantage, he had taken Gor by surprise. The robot managed to swerve, but one of the legs ripped through Gor's left hand, ripping the arm clear off and sending sparks shooting from the stub, a few wires sticking out. Gor seemed to ignore this as his head opened up and his own weapons creaked out. Think of the lasers Gir has hidden in his, made more awful and disturbing times ten. In defence, he shot a few blasts at the legs.  
  
Poe managed to dodge, jumping towards the door. He didn't want Gor to hurt Cten's prone form any more than he already had- heck, he thought she was dead, but still. The two legs at the bottom of the pod unfolded as well, stabbing into the ground outside the door and lifting him off the ground. The thought that someone might see him didn't even enter his mind as he tried to draw Gor outside, teeth bared.  
  
Gor landed on the ground, his guns flaring as they were preparing for another attack, seeing Poe backing away gave him the idea he was already winning. He bared his own teeth and snarled at Poe, moving forward. Behind him, Beka, who throughout this time had been trying to re-trace Cten's lost data from the previous base downstairs - entered. She looks very shocked at this, but then sees her Mistress' form on the ground. With Gor's back to her, she manages to grab Cten by the arms and haul her out of the room. Gor let another blast shoot towards Poe, this time connecting with one of his legs.  
  
"Grah!" Poe recoiled as the laser hit the joint of the left arched leg, melting it slightly and rendering it immobile from the second joint down, the laser tip fizzing off. Poe charged forward and swung the undamaged leg at Gor's lasers, the white sparks at that end pluming into a small inferno.  
  
Some of Gor's lasers were destoryed, but he managed to withdraw them back into his head, probably they're either fixing themselves, or he's now without them. He shifted from one foot to the other, sparks still flying from what was left of his arm, probably waiting for Poe to make the next move, he just stood there glaring at the Irken.  
  
As soon as that leg had swung through its full arc, he swung it in the other direction; while the blade was only sharp on one side, the shower of sparks at the tip was still dangerous. Gor turned his head just in time to see the blade flying at him, but couldn't react quickly enough and the blade sliced clean through his antennae, ripping it off. The robot screeched a metalic cry, his remaining hand flying to his head. His legs collasped under him, he tried to support hmiself with his hand, but no good. Pretty soon Gor was collapsed on the ground, still awake, but still collapsed.  
  
"...good to see-I-taught you well... _Poe_..." his voice was rather static-esque, speeding up and going high, as if he had been pumped with helium. Poe twitched slightly; the technique he'd just used was one Gor had often employed with his whips. He looked slightly surprised to see Gor address him by name, but his face soon returned to the same stoic, determined hatred, looking down at the small robot.  
  
"So I learned that from you," he seethed, before raising his non-damaged leg high, sparks flying over his head, "But I learned this on the street. Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.." He brought the leg down, aimed toward Gor's back, "..life for a life."  
  
"Makes sense...." Gor couldn't see the leg, but he knew it was there either way, and coming closer. "Later Poe... getalonglittledoggie."  
  
Poe didn't hear the robot's ramblings. There was a screech of metal against metal as his leg went through Gor's back and out his front, pinning him to the ground and slicing through his main circuitry, the laser tip turning parts to slag. Then Poe lifted his leg back up, Gor's body still pierced against it, but only for a second. It slided off, and clanked onto the ground, pieces falling from Gor's body. Chips, wires, circuits and other robot parts.  
  
Poe slowly re-folded his legs, aside from the one that was welded in place. What he'd done suddenly registered as his dangerous mood faded, and he looked around quickly, to make sure there were no witnesses. Luckily, being the middle of the day most people were at work, or skool. The overdose of adrenaline started to make him feel ill and weak in the knees, and he stumbled back into the house, jumping around Gor's fallen hull, afraid it might come back to life any moment.  
  
As he re-entered the base, he saw the mess still inside, bits of Cten's I.D Pak still lay on the ground, caked in petrol as well as her own blood, and then it shown, on the marks that Cten had been dragged out of the room. Poe's unsettled stomach wasn't helped by the site, and he shuddered, looking around.

"Beka?" He doubted that even if Cten was alive she could've dragged herself out of the room, and he started to follow the smears on the carpet. He entered the kitchen, where a cupboard was open. The smear lead its way into the cupboard, which was obviously an elevator into the base below. Poe entered the elevator, and saw the button which Beka must have hit, since it was a bit messy. Cringing, he pressed the button, and the elevator made it's way to the room hidden under the ground, further down then the other rooms in the base. As he entered, the room was mostly dark, with a few lights on. Poe squinted to make something out in the dark, leaning against the wall to support himself. He was still shakey, and surprised he hadn't been hurt, though the same couldn't be said for his spider-leg.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Sir Poe?" Beka's voice could be heard from the darkness, and it seemed a light source re-aranged itself so it shon down near her, and she walked into the light. "Sir Poe, are you all right?"  
  
"I'll be fine…" He murmured in a dazed tone, just now noticing his welded limb as it banged on the elevator door frame. "Well, except for that…" He ducked down and wandered over to where the light was shining on the SIR.  
  
"The fixer bot can easily fix that for you, Sir Poe." the robot replied as he approached her.  
  
"Fixer bot…?" He looked slightly confused, his mental state not the most coherent at the moment. He looked around again, "Where's Cten?"  
  
"Ma'am is… just…" she pointed into the darkness. "A few of the robots are checking her I.D Pak for damage, to see if it… if it's still functioning."  
  
"If? You mean, she might be alive?" His antennae perked, hope sparking in his eyes.  
  
"It all depends, Sir Poe." she replied, "Her body has shut down… b-but if they can repair her I.D Pak in time then she can live." the little robot glanced sadly into the darkness, "Those machines better work darn well." Poe nodded slightly, sitting down slowly where he sat and resting his jawline on his palms, staring into the darkness,  
  
"I can't believe she did that for me…"  
  
"What did she do, Sir Poe?" Beka sat down on the ground besides him. Her mistress out of commission, she felt taking orders from anyone else would seem wrong, she'd just talk with Poe until she felt like… cleaning that mess above.  
  
"Gor had this whip with spikes woven into it. I thought if maybe he got me with it, he'd be satisfied and leave us alone, but she jumped in front of me just as soon as he brought the whip down…" Beka's eyecams widened in shock, then she reeled back, clutching herself.  
  
"Oooo, that's… ow!" Poe blinked,  
  
"Beka?" Beka's antennae blinked slightly, then stood up.  
  
"The machines are done checking her!" He looked up eagerly, glancing into the darkness,  
  
"What's their, um, analysis?" Beka frowned as her antennae blinked a few more times,  
  
"They say… they can _fix_ the ID Pak… but they'll need help from another one of their own kind…" she looked at him, "Meaning, Mr. Zim may have to aid us in saving Ma'am, before her body is out of commission for too long, and even if her I.D Pak is fixed, it'd mean nothing!" Poe nodded quickly and jumped to his feet.  
  
"I'll go get him, whether he likes it or not." He ran into the elevator and quickly pushed the buttons to take himself to the house level. He ran through the living room, activating his disguise as he shot out the door, looking around and trying to remember the way to Zim's base. He managed, and soon enough, he was at Zim's door, panting and leaning on his knees. He took a deep, pained breath and pounded on Zim's door loudly. The door slowly opened by Gir, who looked up at Poe blankly through his Puppy disguise.  
  
"Meow?" he hadn't seen Poe in this disguise yet, it was still the 'adult' one, Poe had failed to realise. Poe looked around and deactivated his disguise for a moment,  
  
"It's me, Gir. Cten needs your master's help, NOW. It's urgent."  
  
"Oooooo..." the robot toddled off into the base, soon returning dragging Zim, who was still clutching Zib - luckily still fast asleep - in his arms.  
  
"Gir! What's the meaning of this?! Let me go N-" Zim stopped protesting as he saw Poe stood in the door way, his eyes widening somewhat. "You?! What are _you_ doing here?!" Poe glared at Zim and shook his head, getting straight to the point   
  
"Cten is going to die without the help of your fixer-machines." Zim blinked a few times, Zib began to move in his arms and make little whiney sounds, Zim halted this by sticking his finger into Zib's mouth.  
  
"You aren't saying this just to get me out of my base now, are you Reject?" Gir had already left the room quickly, after dragging Zim in.  
  
"No! Just look at my boots if you don't believe me!" The toes of his boots were caked in Irken blood and petrol from an ID pod. Zim looked down at them, and he backed away. Either he was actually afraid that Poe had done it to Cten, if it really was her blood, or he had allowed germs into his base, any possibility, Zim looked freaked.  
  
"Gah! Uhm, uh… er…" He turned his head to where the robot had been. "Gir! Get-" he was cut off as Gir zipped back into the room, holding what looked like a lunch-box, but it actually was the contracted version of the Fixer-Machines, handy dandy traveling case.  
  
"Here!"  
  
"…thank you, Gir." Zim took the device from Gir and handed it to Poe. "Here! Take it," he then leaned off screen and pulled his wig onto place, and his contacts over his eyes. "But I'm coming to check this out for myself." Poe yanked the box away and tucked it under his arm,  
  
"Fine. Follow me," He reactivated his disguise, took a deep breath and started running in the direction of the base, forgetting that with his longer legs he'd quickly outpace Zim. Zim pulled the blanket over Zib's head and hurried out after him, Gir trailing behind them. Yup, Poe out-ran Zim, but eventually the group arrived, once inside the new base Zim stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the mess on the ground, his jaw opened in shock for a moment, before hurrying after Poe.  
  
"Reject! What on Irk happened here?!" Poe had managed to wait for Zim, with Zib, to enter the elevator.  
  
"I'll explain later," He muttered, entering the elevator, "Just get inside, there's not much time." He jammed the button again, leading them down into deepest, dark room. Zim was about to snap back with something witty in his Zimmy way of his, but decided it wasn't the best time or place to say something that might anger the Reject, Reject yes, but taller and probably more stronger then him. Not to mention the Reject was still pumped on adrenaline. He leaned against the back wall of the elevator, trying to catch his breath, having not run like that in a while. Eventually the elevator door opened in the dark room, Beka stood waiting by a large door which was now lit by the lights in the room. Poe stumbled forwar and handed the box to Beka before slumping to his knees, sitting back against the wall of the lab.  
  
"Oh thank you Sir Poe and Sir Zim!" Beka hurried out the room, the big door slamming shut behind her. Zim still looked very confused as he stood there, and looked at Poe blankly. Zib was now awake, but since he couldn't see where he was, he just made tiny noises now and again.  
  
"…now… are you going to tell Zim what happened here?" Poe deactivated his disguise and ran his claws through his antennae,  
  
"Gor… Gor was what burnt down Cten's old base," he wheezed, "He came here while she was out with you, and Gor was about to strike me with some spiked whip thing… when she came in and took the blow for me." Zim stared at Poe for a while, before taking a seat on the other side of the room, sat against the wall.  
  
"She… huh…" Zim wasn't sure how to say this without sounding like a sap, despite the fact he still held a baby in his arms. "I guess… she really cared about you then. I guess."  
  
"I would've stopped her if I could, but it happened in a matter of seconds…" He sat his forehead against his hands. In the back of his mind, he was relieved that Zim didn't wonder what he'd been doing in Cten's base, or why Gor had targetted her in the first place.  
  
"She was, uh, is a fine soilder, Reject." Zim held his head up, closing his eyes. "She went out defending someone, a Reject yes, but someone who meaned a lot to her." he opened his eyes and smirked, "Must have since you've been living together since she got that old base, er, when it was new."  
  
"Wha? How'd you know?" Poe blinked slightly, lifting his head.  
  
"Reject, you have a smell about you and I've smelt that more on Cten then before she had that old base." Zim pulled his wig off, "An Invader I am, but I have no reason to annoy Cten with what she does, or _who_ she does in her spare time." he threw it to the ground, pulling his lenses out. Poe flushed slightly, but was too strung out to get too embaressed. He just nodded slightly, hanging his head wearily,  
  
"Yeah… She offered to let me move in with her a while ago… to get away from Gor." Zim just nodded in responce slowly.  
  
"Ah, Gor… Cten told me about him a while ago… evil… stink beast of a robot."  
  
"Even if most wouldn't consider me a 'true' member of the species?" He shook his head slightly, "I wasn't totally unscathed though," He mumbled, glancing at his slightly twisted, stuck leg, something his disguise hologram had made invisible, "I'll worry about that later."  
  
"Reject or not, you _are_ an Irken… still." Zim held Zib closer, since he had began to shiver since the room wasn't exactly warm, being all metal made it very cold.  
  
"Really. You seemed to think differently when we first met," Poe snickered slightly, looking over at Zib, "I think that kid's made you soft."  
  
"Soft?! Me? Never!" Zim snorted back, still cradling Zib in his arms, who was beginning to 'weh' slightly. "It's the situation that has to have the propper way of reacting and speaking! If this were anything else… hoo I'd be insulting you so much your head would spin!" Poe just kept snickering quietly,  
  
"If you say so, Zim." He sat up, glancing at the door, going from snickering to worrying, "I wonder how she's doing…" The two went quiet, looking at the door. A few 'whirring' sounds could be heard, and other sounds which sounded like it belonged in a metal works classroom then behind a closed door. Zaps, and shots of light came from beneath the door, Zim shuddered and scooted away from the door.  
  
"Well let's hope it all works."  
  
"Yeah…" Poe drew his knees up and rested his head on them, muttering to himself about how he should have found Gor first or lead him away from the base to begin with or whatnot.  
  
Time ticked by, Zib cried a few times but that was just gas, luckily. Minutes turned into hours, as they usually do. A few hours passed, when finally the noises from inside died down. Poe drifted in and out of sleep, but mostly stayed as he was. Zim was already fast asleep, drool lingering at the corner of his mouth. Zib was still curled up in his Mom's arms, looking very similar and the same drool lingering out of his mouth. The door then slowly opened and Beka walked out. Poe looked up when the door opened,  
  
"How is she?" Beka walked past Zim and Zib, allowing sleeping Irkens/Clones to sleep and took Poe by the hand, smiling.  
  
"She wants to see you!" Poe stood up immediately and followed Beka, practically ending up dragging her along,  
  
"Cten?!"  
  
[To be continued]


	7. Chapter 8

The Battle of Gor  
Epic Two  
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Eight  
  
Inside the room, the fixer machines looked very similar to large metalic snakes - but instead of heads they had operation devices stuck to their heads. Both sets, which consisted five each, were silent. Inbetween the two was a metalic table, where Cten was. For the operation she had been laid on her front, and she was still like that. Her Pak was now fixed, and there had been some mending to her physical injuries, stitches over her back and so forth. Yeah, she was nude but heck with Irkens who cares really? She lifted her head as she heard Poe's voice, and glanced over her shoulder at him, smiling somewhat.  
  
"Hey Poe…!" He ran up to her and hugged her shoulders tightly, but carefully, as to not dislocate any of her new stitches,  
  
"You're alive!" He said happily, and looked it, too. Cten sat up slightly and hugged him back tightly, and happily as well.  
  
"Glad you noticed!"  
  
"I was so worried, I can't believe you did that, I even had to drag Zim here because your machines needed assistance…" He was speaking fairly quickly, for Poe at least. She just grins, in her usual Cten-ish way as she held onto him,  
  
"I know, I know… Beka told me Zim and Zib was here… I didn't beleive it at first!" Poe sat down on the metal table,  
  
"They're here alright, but they're sleeping right now." He took a breath, "Gor's not a threat anymore, either.."  
  
"I heard…" she smiled up at him, resting her head in her hands. "I'm impressed I must say…" Poe nodded slightly, though he still looked a bit shaken up.  
  
"That was weird…" He murmured, "I never got like that before." He scratched the back of his head.  
  
"Heh, think I triggered something." she grinned somewhat, "What with being the damsal in distress for a little while."  
  
"Heh, maybe," He grinned a bit sheepishly, before smiling, "That was really brave, what you did, Cten…"  
  
"Ya think?" she leaned on one hand, the other one drawing invisible circles on the metal table. "I guess my instincts went ahead of my thinking, for once…"  
  
"I don't think, I know," He insisted, "You almost died for something that was my problem… It was totally selfless," He grinned slightly, "And completely unIrklike."  
  
"I always was the weird one." she muttered, then looked up at him. "I told you before, you're my best friend and what kind of friend, Irken or not, would allow you to get hurt by that thing anyway?" she reached up and tapped him where his nose would be, "Not a very good one, I say." He made a slight face and went crosseyed, then looked back down at her.  
  
"Best one I've ever had," he smiled, and reached up, pulling her claw away from his nose-area and taking it in his hand, "One who I couldn't ever replace." She blushed deeply at this, and just smiled up at him.  
  
"Ditto." Poe just smiled more widely, while Zim was starting to yawn loudly and stretch, scratching his antennae. Poe glanced back towards the room he'd previously been in,  
  
"He's apparently known I've been living with you all this time anyway…"  
  
"Sneaky devil…" she said quietly, "Still… he didn't lecture at all…" Zib was startled awake by Zim's movements, and yawned himself. Poe shook his head,  
  
"Not yet, anyway. He said he didn't have any reason to intrude on your business, but he was being unusually diplomatic.. I guess because of the situation." Zim hefted his offspring up as he stood, noticing Poe gone and the door open, he wandered into the main room. He raised an eyelid at them, noticing Poe holding onto Cten's fingers,  
  
"Mayhaps I should check on your condition later, Solider…" Cten blinked and looked back at Zim, and smiled.  
  
"Nah, you're allowed in Zim." Zib wiggled in Zim's arms,  
  
"Eehhh…" he said, moving around more then he usually did. Zim shifted Zib's weight around in his arms and proceeded forward,  
  
"Nice to see you alive, then. I'd hate to loose my only source of spawn-rearing information!" He said, but the tone of his voice indicated he cared, despite how callous he might sound - he was Zim, afterall.  
  
"I would have missed you too Zim." she grinned at him, while Zib continued to whine and began to thrash his little hands about.  
  
"Ehh, ehhhhh!!" Zim blinked and finally noticed,  
  
"What's the matter with you, Zib?" He scowled, setting the clone upright in his arms.  
  
"He wants down, Zim." Cten replied, even if the question was aimed at Zib, but what could he do to answer anyway? She then smiled at Poe, "Amazing how I understand baby talk." Poe blinked slightly and looked over at Zib,  
  
"I'd say." Zim shrugged and leaned down, showing the floor to Zib,  
  
"Do you really want to crawl around on that? It's cold!"  
  
"Ehh!" Zib waved his hands at the ground eagerly. Either he had enough of Zim holding him, or maybe something was starting to happen.  
  
"Alright!" Zim complied and set Zib down on the ground. Now out of his blanket, Cten couldn't help but smirk since Zib wore a diaper which was probably three times too big for him. But, he gleefully giggled as he was placed on the ground either way. She looked up at Zim,  
  
"Thanks Zim, y'know, for letting us use your Fixer-Machines."  
  
"It's my duty as your superior to make sure nothing happens to you while you're under my command," He stood up, stretching out his arms, which had gotten a bit cramped.  
  
"It means a lot, Zim," Poe added, smiling slightly.  
  
"Bah," Zim huffed and folded his arms. Cten then held her hand out to him, ushering him to come closer.  
  
"C'mere."  
  
"Eh?" Zim stepped forward cautiously. Soon enough he was by the table, she grinned and threw her arms around his middle, pulling him in with a hug - she knew he wouldn't like it, but heck, not every day you die and come back to life because one of your friends allowed your other friend to obtain the life saving machinery.  
  
"Eeeh! Hey!" Zim squirmed, sighing loudly and giving up, hesitantly hugging her back as though it were the most unpleasent task in the world. "Stop being all mushy, you'll be a bad influence on Zib!"  
  
"Hey I'm a girl, I can't help it." she let go of him, and pointed her finger at him. "Be glad I didn't kiss ya." Zib, meanwhile had crawled under the table and was poking at a wire that was from one of the Fixer-Machines. Zim dusted himself off and pulled away,  
  
"Blech!" He said, before noticing Zib had crawled way, "Zib? Get back here!" He crawled under the table, while Poe watched them, chuckling softly. She leant her head on one of her hands and looked up at Poe.  
  
"Gotta love em, eh?" Zib squealed as he saw his Mom coming after him, giggled and crawled away as quickly as he could.  
  
"There's no way around it," Poe grinned a bit, then drew his legs up and scooted to the side, towards Cten, so Zim could crawl after Zib succesfully.  
  
"Geh! Hatchlings who cannot even walk should not be so speedy!" Zim grumbled. Cten scooted over giving Poe some more room, then dared to sit up. She hissed slightly, at the slight pain in her back, but managed either way. Zib then stopped, and blinked a few times. He felt funny, and not the haha funny way either.  
  
"You alright?" Poe hopped off the table, "You shouldn't sit up, Cten, you'll pop your stitches…" Zim managed to catch up to Zib and grabbed him around the middle victoriously,  
  
"HAH! Gotcha!"  
  
"No no… that table was cold…" she replied, making sure not to arch her back. Just as Zim grabbed Zib, the ray effect worn off. In mere seconds, Zib was his normal cloney-size, and being in Zim's arms caused Zim to loose balance, both ending up sprawled out on the floor. Zib blinked blankly as he sat on Zim's chest, and quickly hugged himself because it was cold in the room, and he was pretty much naked, save for his diaper.  
  
"Hey, what happened?" Zib looked down, adjusting his glasses, "Where are my clothes?"  
  
"Ah, welcome back Zib!" Cten smiled at him from her table, still not in the least bit bothered she was still naked, since no one in the room seemed to have noticed - since she had been laid down all the time. Well, Zim was a mature Irken - at least, when it came to this subject. Zim coughed and managed to push Zib off him,  
  
"Off! You heavy clone spawn thing!" Zib fell onto the floor and yelped, then noticed Cten,  
  
"Hi Ms. Cten, you missin your clothes too?" Poe'd been too overwhelmed with happiness to notice, and was starting to, flushing, the floor suddenly becoming very interesting.  
  
"Heh, yeah…" she leant over and pulled from under the table - some space between the table and the bottom of the real table - two blankets and threw one to Zib. "You'll need this as much as I do." she winced as she wrapped hers around herself.  
  
"Hmph, such sillyness as nudeness doesn't bother me!" Zim sniffed. Zib wrapped himself up in the blanket and sat down, slowly remembering what'd happened, though it was slightly fractured, being from a baby's POV and all.  
  
"Well, it's not like it bothers me either," Poe insisted and coughed, leaning his elbows back against the edge of the table and staring at the wall ahead.   
  
"Liar." Cten grinned, then slowly slided off the table. "Eeee… Tallest… stitches hurt…"  
  
"Come Zib!" Zim stood up, "We need to get to the house, so at least half of us can put clothes on, and get warm."  
  
"Alright. Bye, Ms. Cten, Poe!" Zib waved and followed Zim towards the elevator, and Poe blinked, helping Cten off of the table as best as he could and offering support,  
  
"You sure walking around is wise?"  
  
"…now I'm on the ground… no…" she whimpered slightly, the cold floor doing more bad then she thought it would.  
  
"Come on, I'll take you up stairs to the couch." He leaned down slightly and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and thighs and picked her up with as much caution as possible, staring towards the elevator after Zib and Zim.  
  
"…uhm, thanks Poe…" she pulled the blanket up more to her face, trying to at least hide the blush that now consumed her whole face.  
  
"No problem." He grinned over at her slightly, easily brushing aside his shyness as soon as she needed assistance. Zib looked over at them from the elevator, giggling loudly and trying to conceal his mouth with his hand.  
  
"Zib, quiet." Zim said quietly and quickly, pulling Zib aside as Poe entered with Cten. He hit the 'ground floor' button, the door shut and the elevator started up. Zib held his other hand up to his mouth and closed his eyes, trying to stiffle his giggle fit. Poe blushed faintly, but just shifted Cten's weight around carefully. Soon enough, the elevator opened, and he brought her over to the couch. Zim lead Zib away, searching for the Voot Cruiser, usually that was an easy way to get Zib clothes that fitted right.  
  
"Now how many times have I said thanks to you today?" Cten smirked as Poe laid her on the couch, she slid her hands town his arms to hold onto his hands for a while.  
  
"Hey, I owe you, big time." He set her down carefully and sat on the edge of the couch, looking down at her, holding her claws in his.  
  
"Oh come on… I'm not the one who managed to destroy Gor…"  
  
"You saved my life, though." He leaned over and kissed her forehead lightly, "And for that I owe you." She shut her else as he leaned in, then opened her eyes and looked up at him, smiling while still blushing fiercely.  
  
"Well... I do my best..." He pulled back slightly, but not all the way into his original position, smiling warmly,  
  
"I know. And that's a lot, for a Reject like me."  
  
"Poe, you're not a Reject... you're so much more to me," she ran one hand up the side of his face, "I just wanted you to know that." Poe closed his eyes halfway and leaned his head against her hand, reaching up and setting his own atop her's,  
  
"You're a lot more than a Maid to me, too."' Cten smiles up at him, comforted by his hand atop of hers. Her other hand went up to the other side of his face,  
  
"No one's ever said that to me before..."  
  
"Heh, you think anyone's ever called me more than a Reject before?" Poe reached down and rest his other hand on her cheek, stroking it with his thumb, "Much less their best friend."  
  
"Guess... guess we're both important to the other, huh?" she smiled, her blush now gone from her face.  
  
"I'd say so." He leaned against her lightly, but was careful not to damage her stitches.  
  
"Poe... listen there's....look I gotta tell you something and, and I know it'll probably ruin what we've got, but..." she sighed and brushed her hand against his face gently, "I can't really not say it now..." Poe tilted his head slightly,  
  
"I'm listening," he said gently. She bit her bottom lip while looking away, then looked up at him.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"You don't have to say it now, Cten. Whenever you're ready." He said softly, holding her hand to his face.  
  
"No, I'm not sorry for that... I'm sorry for this." with that she leant up and pulled him down and thus did what we been waiting for, we meaning me (I know I suck =P), presses her lips up against his and just kisses him softly.  
  
Poe blinked in surprise, but closed his eyes and leaned into it, sliding his hands beneath her shoulders. Cten held the kiss, while her hands slide up to the back of his neck and shifted her weight slightly. Poe squeezed her slightly, leaning his long antennae forward and wrapping them around her's. She shivers slightly but then in return, her antennae curls around his, one looping just slightly through one of his antennae-rings, still managing to hold the kiss this long. Must be useful not to have lungs, eh?  
  
Apparently, as Poe certainly didn't seem to be resisting, tilting his head to one side and leaning forward further slowly, still managing to be careful about hurting her stitches despite being somewhat preoccupied. Cten let out what could be called a small moany type thing, as she leant her head up to meet his, the pain her back being forgotten at this moment in time, one of her hands running along his shoulder.  
  
Poe leaned down until she no longer had to lean upwards, resting his chest against her's, winding his long antennae around her's a few more times, their unnatural length lending themselves to an interesting experience. Seeing as how Poe, all this time has been sat besides her on the couch, Cten then pulls him down, using one of her clawed feet to pull his feet up onto the couch; so now Poe was kinda laid on her, one of her feet holding onto one of his boots. Her antennae wiggled slightly, giving off the impression she's enjoying this very much.  
  
Poe moved in accordance with her feet, snuggling atop her gently. He made a muffled sound and slid his claws away from her shoulders, up along her neck and to the back of her head, cradling it as he tilted his head in the other direction. Cten let one of her claws run along the back of his head, massaging it gently as she felt his weight atop of her. She made a slight muffle sound in responce to his, smiling against his lips.  
  
Poe started to give off a throaty, humming sound that almost sounded like- a purr? Well, an alien one to be sure, but still. He squeezed his eyes tightly and tightened his grip on her, kissing her with a bit more 'oomph'. A muffled giggle could be heard from Cten as she picked up the sound of Poe's purring, and kissed him back, then her eyes opened slowly as she felt something brushing against her teeth; obviously Poe was using more 'oomph' then before but since she was in the heat of the moment, she parted her lips anyway.  
  
Poe slid his segmented tongue out, lost in the moment as well. He hooked his knees around her's, pressing down against her and squeezing her antennae tightly with his own, one of his hands resting against her side while the other supported her head. Her antennae rubbed up against his, swilring around his long antennae and weaving through a few of his rings. Feeling his tongue slide up against hers, she pushed hers against his, then slightly ran her tongue around his, her grip on his side holding on as she kept rubbing his head, then he hand ran up and circled the base of one of his antennae.  
  
Poe's antennae twitched, and he shivered, parting his sharp teeth slightly and curling his tongue around her's as well. He slid his claws beneath her back and ran up along it, claw tips sliding over the wounded, stitched tissue; this seemed to snap him back into reality, and he blinked his eyes open, swallowing and pulling back from her a bit, needless to say, rather breathless.  
  
"Woah…" Cten had cringed as he had brushed his hands over her stitches, and blinked her eyes open as he pulled away. She stared at him, then smiled warmly.  
  
"…yeah…." she breathed, "Wow." Poe smiled back, removing his hand from her back carefully,  
  
"Sorry 'bout that," he mumbled, staring into her eyes and resting his claws against her cheek again.  
  
"Eh… that's all right…" she laughed slightly, "I was wondering when something would jolt us out of it… not that I'm complaining…" Poe looked a bit dazed as he finally caught his breath, chuckling softly.  
  
"So are you still sorry for it?" Cten shook her head gently,  
  
"Nope… turned out to be one of the better events in my life really… how about you?" her antennae tickled against his as she grinned up at him.  
  
"Same here." He grinned back, showing a few teeth, "Certainly hasn't ruined anything as far as I'm concerned, if anything, just made it better…" He leaned down and nuzzled her cheek softly. Cten smiled as she held onto him around his sholders, one hand held upwards so she could rest it on the back of his neck, caressing it gently.  
  
"Poe… you do not know how much, I mean… how long I've wanted to tell you how I felt…" she sighed happily, nuzzling back against him. "It's just made this whole day complete for me."  
  
"As if taking care of a baby alien-human hybrid, getting a new home-dash-base, and almost getting killed by an evil robot weren't enough?" Poe grinned a bit, then glanced at the ceiling, "I have to admit I kinda had… well, I guess humans call it 'a thing', since the day we met and got our antennae twined up in that tree."  
  
"Really?" she smiled broadly, then giggled slightly. "I've had 'a thing' for you since then too… not just cause of the antennae twined stuff. You just… hrn, how to put it… bring the best out of me. Yeah."  
  
"Really." He grinned widely, "You're the first person I've ever wanted to - or gotten - close to… Probably the only one to see my nicer side, or care to look for it. Rejects don't treat each other any better than most normal Irkens do, usually." She closed her eyes, but still kept the smile on her face.  
  
"Rejects get a bad life yeah… but I think you've gotten to the good stage of your life now, what do you reckon?" she opened one eye and looked at him.  
  
"It's had it's ups and down so far," He stroked his knuckles along her cheek idly, "But I'd say it's definately taken a turn for the better…"  
  
"Well good… my life as a Maid and fake Soilder has hit the high life too." she snuggled against him, hands resting around his midsection.  
  
"Still." He stroked his claws up along the side of her face, up to her antennae, "I would've done the same thing for you too, though."  
  
"I slarkin' well hope so!" she joked, giggling slightly. "No no, it's… well I dunno, is it expected?"  
  
"Expected? Certainly took me by surprise when you did it…"  
  
"Either way… Gor's gone now, and I don't think we've got anything else to worry about… do we?" He shrugged slightly,  
  
"I'm not sure. There's always Dib, but I kinda doubt he's really _that_ much of a threat…"  
  
"He isn't really... except when he throws water..." she then yawned loudly and stretched, careful not to inflict more pain on her back.  
  
"Yeah," Poe made a slight face, "Even that hasn't been so bad, though, since you showed me how to use paste." He grinned slightly, then noticed her yawning, "Tired?"  
  
"Mmm-mm..." she replied sleepily, "I'm gonna rest well tonight, I'll tell you that.." she paused to yawn again, "..much." she then smiled sheepishly up at him. Poe chuckled softly and smiled down at her, before yawning himself, stretching his shoulders,  
  
"A bit worn out myself, I guess fighting an evil robot and running back and forth across the city a few times will do that.." He ran a clawtip down her antennae, stroking it lightly, "Mind if I join you for that good rest?" Poe grinned. She shivered slightly as he ran his finger along her antennae, purring gently.  
  
"Wouldn't mind at all." He wound the tip of her antennae around his finger, rubbing it with his thumb affectionately, before looking around the mess of the room.  
  
"I guess I'll have to clean this up later, Beka seemed busy in the labs below."  
  
"Mmmmm..." she sighed heavily as he continued to manipulate her antennae, then managed to at least glance at the room. "Oh... oh stuff it..." she ran her claws up around his neck affectionately. "I wanna go to bed now." Poe purred lowly, then looked over at the stairs,  
  
"Well, we never did get a chance to see what kind of bedrooms the base-creator concocted.." He slowly, and reluctantly, slid off of her and stood up, probably displacing her blanket in the process and flushing a bit, before wrapping his arms around her shoulders and knees again, "Shall I escort you to your sleeping quarters?" He teased slightly, grinning down at her. Cten laughed slightly as he wrappd his arms around her, she kept her arms around his neck.  
  
"Please do, Mr. Poe sir... I'd be forever in your debt if you did.." she nuzzled against his neck as he lifted her up, not really caring that she was once again naked again. Poe grinned widely,  
  
"It'll be my pleasure, fair lady," he said, sounding like the Noble he might've been in another life, and lifted her off the couch slowly, circumnavigating the mess on the floor and starting up the stairs. She snuggled against him, purring gently as he carried her.  
  
"I love you Poe…" she said gently. Poe stopped mid-stride perked his antennae in slight surprise, that being the first time anyone had said that to him and all. Soon, a warm smile spread across his face, and he nuzzled her forehead,  
  
"I love you too, Cten." He said quietly, 'into' her antennae, and started up the stairs. Cten opened her eyes and looked up at him, she'd been waiting quite a while to say, as well as to hear those words said to her. She leaned into him, fighting the sleep that was pounding at her mind. That could wait of course, for a small while longer. Poe reached the top of the stairs and went to the nearest door and opened it by kicking at it. Inside, the room looked pretty normal, despite the fact it had a shower in the corner of the room.  
  
Poe squeezed her slightly and set her down on the bed as gently as possible, standing up and stetching out his arms. After thinking of something, he took off his gloves and dropped them to the floor, before shrugging off his almost ever-present coat and sitting down on the edge of the bed, yanking off his boots. Rolling onto her side, Cten watches as he kicks his boots off. She smirks slightly,  
  
"Well this has got to be a first... Poe without the jacket..." Poe laughed quietly,  
  
"I usually sleep in it, out of habit.. But I guess there's no reason to now." His boots removed, he slid over to her, wearing only his sleevless uniform shirt and pants - even his collar was gone, now. She nodded slightly in responce, and scooted slightly to the side as he slid besides her.  
  
"Well... you look different already..." she placed one arm over his front, leaning against him as one of her metalic legs pulled the blanket up over them, before it vanished back into her pod. "Still, clothes are nothing anyway.."  
  
"True.." He slid one arm beneath her and around the small of her back, resting his head atop her's slightly, "Good night," He murmured, leaning over for a moment and dimming the lights via a panel near the bed.  
  
"G'night Poe." she shut her eyes as the lights dimmed, keeping her arm around him.  
  
Poe held her gently and snuggled up to her, soon drifting into a restful sleep. Cten wasn't far behind, falling asleep into a totally wanted sleep besides Poe.  
  
[The End]


End file.
